The Last of Us:Texas Rising
by e55hunter
Summary: After the death of Marlene, her second in command takes over. They soon adopt the ideology of imperialism. On the other side, the new reestablished Republic of Texas still has faith in democracy. As time goes on in this post-pandemic world both sides have a common goal, to find a vaccine, with Jackson to be in the crossfire. These two new superpowers can't avoid each other forever.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first fanfiction, ever. I would like you to please be polite. Anyway, this story is told in different perspectives throughout. This is chapter includes the PROLOGUE, and CHAPTER 1, enjoy. A new addition to the chapter will be The Last of Us OST. Playing it is not necessary, but it is recommended. If you're interested in seeing map of the US before this story, here's my twitter: tloutexasrising.

THE LAST

OF US:

TEXAS RISING

PROLOGUE:

[Play _The Last of Us_ ]

During the 20 year gap of "The Last of Us" there was a quarantine zone in the Rio Grande Valley/Delta by the name of the Brownsville QZ, however around the year 2017, the military withdrew from the zone. The military left the zone in a hurry, as a result the abandoned most of their weapons, artillery, and vehicles. The military would later report to the U.S. Capital.

The people of the zone would later decide to found Army of the Republic (aka the Texan Army) and reestablish the Republic of Texas. Their training would end up being far superior to the U.S. military's, when it came to fighting infected.

The temporary capital would be Brownsville. They would later claim and clear the RGV of infected in under a month. Their goals eventually grew to the point where they would visit Austin. They cleared it of infected and then made it the new capital.

In five years the whole state of present day Texas would be a part of the Republic. Their government would be similar to the U.S. government (the government before marital law). After they had reached their goal, the 2nd president would make borders around the new nation, they would isolate itself for at least a decade.

Then an African-American women, Marlene wanted spread democracy, she had lived in Texas all her life. She would take her best friend, Anna. Texas agreed to her plan. Texas unofficially sponsored her plan. They provided weapons, ammo, and gear. Originally about 20 people signed up for the plan, one of them would be a man named Alex Johnson, who would later become Marlene's second in command.

Not only did she want to spread democracy, she wanted to find a cure. Her group would later be nicknamed the Fireflies, nicknamed after her plan, Project Firefly. They would later settle into Salt Lake City. There they founded the Firefly Republic.

Marlene would organize her military by legions instead of battalions. She soon trusted Johnson, she would give him command of the military and personal command of the 10th Legion.

All was good until the spring of 2034, Marlene had found a way to connect to a satellite above Earth, it was connected to an old Austin sever. She would send a transmission which happened to be encrypted. Texas would receive this transmission, but it would take months to decrypt.

[If not finished, pause or wait out the song. The choice is up to the reader]

JOEL: CHAPTER 1: Home sweet Home

It has been about a month ever since the events of "The Last of Us". Joel, and Ellie started to live a normal life at the Jackson settlement. It was a warm morning that day. Joel and Ellie lived on a two story house with Tommy and Maria. Joel's room was at the right next to it Ellie's, and there at the end of hall was Tommy's and Maria's. From time to time, Ellie crawled into Joel's bed. Usually because she had nightmares, she never told Joel about them though.

Joel had begun to make breakfast, while both Tommy and Maria had gone out to the dam. Ellie finally woke up. She wore the same t-shirt when the first met, and ragged jeans. Ellie walked bare footed towards Joel, while rubbing her eyes.

"MorninMorning', why are you wearinwearing' that old shirt?" Joel said.

"I donno, don't have anything else to wear. Plus, brings back lots of memories." Ellie said hugging herself.

"Last I checked it was bloody," Joel said.

"Well I washed it, so no more blood. So what's for breakfast?" she asked.

"Sandwiches" he said.

"Again?" Ellie complained.

 _Huh? I thought she liked my sandwiches. Well then again, we have been eating this since we got here_ , he thought to himself. "Well sorry, I try making something else tomorrow" he replied.

"Joel, it's not that I-I don't like your sandwiches, it's because we eat this every day."

"Alright then" he said. Ellie grabbed her sandwich and ate with Joel.

After they ate, Ellie sat down on the couch next the door. She looked traumatized and tried not to show it, but she wasn't good at hiding what she was feeling. "What's up with you?" Joel asked.

"Oh, nothinnothing'" Ellie replied.

"Something goingoing' on with you. You don't normally act like this, don't be afraid to tell me, Ellie." Joel said.

"It's nothinnothing', Joel." Ellie said.

"Sorry, but I need to know, or else-" He said and then a tear started to form. He tried to keep it in his eye though. He wiped the tear before it came out. "When I lost Sarah," he began. [Play _The Way it Was]_ "It was the worst thing that happened to me, I never coped my feelings, it fucked me up inside. I'm not goingoing' to be forcinforcing' it out of you, I just sayinsaying' how it gonna feel." He said.

It got quite for a while until Ellie, out of nowhere said. "I have been having nightmares" she finally told Joel. "And they aren't just regular nightmares Joel. I've seen you in many of my nightmares." She said.

"For your and my sake, describe me the most recent one" he kindly requested.

[Either wait out or pause the song]

"You were tied up against a chair, in that restaurant you found me in the last harsh winter. Todd's I believe. Anyway, David had me tied against another one. He started walking' towards you. And then he said, 'What's wrong Ellie, Joel ain't going to save you.' And then you said 'Ellie, I'm…' and before you could finish your words, he stabbed you in the chest with a machete. Those were your last words. Then he cut the fishing string that he had tied me with. Before I could try and get up he pushed me towards the floor and then he…" Ellie started running towards Joel, while tears were streaming down her face.

[Play _The Last of Us (Goodnight)_ ]

Joel opened his arms to hug her, and said "Oh baby girl…it's okay, he can't hurt you no more."

[Either pause or wait out the song]

It had been about an hour. Ellie tears had dried up. She started reading a book named "The Eleventh Plague" by Jeff Hirsch. "You know this book isn't that bad" Ellie said.

"Really?" he said, while getting ready to go on a hunt.

"It's just that back in your day… they had all this books about post-pandemic stuff. And now that we are living one, it sucks." She said.

"Yeah" Joel said.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Gonna hunt." He answered her question. "Maria is gonna be here in a bit. You need anything before I go?" he asked.

"Nope… wait what's that? Ellie asked.

"What's what?' Joel asked.

"That on the wall!" she pointed to right next to the stairs.

There was a shelf blocking a hole in the wall. Joel went towards shelf and moved it out of the way.

"Where's the light switch?" Joel asked. It was a dark cold room, Joel reached for the wall and found the light switch and switched the light on. "Holy shit" Joel said.

"Wow, so many guns" Ellie said.

"These are M4 assault rifles, military grade." Joel said. There were so many laid on the floor. More on a couch, and some against the wall.

"Look a letter." Ellie pointed to a piece of paper on top a crate labeled to the side, explosives. Joel pick up the note and read it, and said.

 _Dear Maria,_

 _Today I have found lots of weapons, I thought you may want them. Hopefully you have found this hidden room behind the shelf. I hope I am alive to see you find them. If not, it's okay. I just want you to find these for the settlement here. I found them in a crashed military tuck just around here. It was unbelievable when I first found them. I stored them here. Hoped I lived to see the look on your face._

 _Love,_

 _Dad_

"I don't think Maria's dad ever got to ever see the look on Maria's face." Joel said.

"That's so sad" Ellie said.

Maria walk in, and Joel gave her the letter. Her face was filled with sadness and happiness. She walk in the hidden room with tears in her eyes. "Thanks dad" she Maria said. "You too Joel" Maria thanked him.

"You're welcome" Joel replied. "Uh… Maria I need you to watch Ellie while I'm gone." Joel said.

"Yeah, I'll take care of her." Maria said trying to wipe her tears from her eyes.

"I'll be back Ellie, don't do anythinanything' stupid" Joel said.

"I won't" Ellie said. Joel closed the door, and headed out for the woods.

A/N: Songs used in the chapter, _The Last of Us, The Last of Us (Goodnight),_ and _The Way it Was._ Keep in mind, I don't own this OST. All the credit for the OST belongs to Naughty Dog, and its main composer Gustavo Santaolalla.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: The following chapter is pretty short. This chapter is going to be shortest chapter.

JOEL: CHAPTER 2: The Hunt

Joel passed the gate with his rifle in his hand. _Maybe I should have taken some ammo for my M4, whatever too late now._ Joel thought to himself. He entered the woods a mile away from the settlement.

He climbed over an old, mossy log. Joel put his backpack down to look to see what he had. He located lots of ammo, and placed it in his rifle. He then stumbled on picture of him and Sarah, which Ellie had given to him. A tear started run down his eye. _I'm so sorry baby girl, it should have been me, not you. I really wonder how life would be if you were still around._ He told himself.

Took him about 5 minutes to man up, and stop weeping. As he stopped he noticed a buck. _Looks like we're going to have_ _deer for dinner, instead of sandwiches._ He told himself. He picked up his rifle and aim down his scope. But all of a sudden someone knocked him out with a baseball bat. As he was being hit he shot, BAM!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: This a longer chapter than the previous.

ELLIE: CHAPTER 3: Hunt Gone Wrong

Word had gone out about hearing a gun shot in the woods. Most people just assumed that Joel had shot something. But he did not make an appearance at dinner. After that people started to worry. It wasn't just Ellie who worried, Tommy to, worried.

"Oh man, oh man, where the hell is Joel?! He wouldn't stay out in the woods that long, would he?" Tommy asked pacing around the house floor.

"I don't think he would." Ellie answered.

Maria handed Tommy and Ellie a bowl of steamed vegetables. "We need to go send a search party tomorrow morning." Maria suggested.

"So, Maria have you distributed the weapons?" Ellie asked trying to change topic.

Tommy's face was puzzled. _I guess she hadn't told Tommy on what we found._ She told herself. "What weapons?" He asked.

"I was meaning to tell you honey, today earlier Ellie and Joel found a whole weapon cache." Maria said.

"Where?" Tommy asked.

"There my father left them there, before he passed away."

Tommy walked into the hidden room. He slowly started crying with tears of joy. "Thank God." He said to himself. He picked up an M4 rifle. "We'll give them out tomorrow," Tommy said inspecting the rifle.

"Hey! What are we going to do about Joel" Ellie asked.

Tommy looked back at Ellie and he said, "Oh, that's right, we'll send a search party tomorrow."

Ellie went back to the dinner table and continued eating. She wanted to go search for him, but she knew Tommy and Maria wouldn't let her.

It was almost time to go asleep. Ellie headed for the shower (Which Tommy had fixed the water problem a couple of months back, so now they can take nice showers, and use the toilet and stuff). She then realized she didn't have any clean clothes to wear. She got up and headed for Tommy's and Maria's room.

She opened the door, and asked, "Hey, Maria, do you have any clean clothes for me to wear."

"Uh, I got these, look like your size." Maria said. She handed them to Ellie.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Maria added.

 _What the hell is Minecraft?_ She asked herself. One of the shirts that Maria handed her was a _Minecraft_ shirt. She took off her dirty old clothes and took a quick shower. She got out and put on the clothes that Maria gave her.

 _Better go asleep_. She told herself. She then, turned off the lights, and hit the hay. _I miss you Joel_. She told herself as she fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Another chapter, sorry for not doing this for a long time

ELLIE: CHAPTER 4: The Search

Ellie woke up tired, yet stressed out that day. She got up from her bed and started preparing to go and search for Joel. She grabbed her backpack, pistol, and other stuff she thaught might be useful. _Haven't used this backpack in sometime. The last time I used it was coming back from the Fireflies. I wonder what's going on with them. First they wanted a cure, and now they stopped. All this travelling was for nothing. Well maybe not nothing. I mean, I met Joel. He's like the dad that I never had. But… now he is missing, and…_ After telling herself this, she instantly broke down, and let the tears flow. She cried so loud, that it woke up Maria.

She ran into Ellie's room and asked what was wrong.

"It's nothin', really." she weakly, still trying to catch her breath from crying.

"I don't believe what you're sayin' Ellie, you're goin' to tell me now, and I ain't taking no for an answer" Maria said.

"Maria… It's nothing." Ellie replied.

"Does it have something to do with Joel's disappearance?" Maria asked.

"Yes," Ellie said weakly.

"Don't worry, Ellie, we'll find him." Maria told Ellie. This made Ellie feel more confident.  
"Alright!" Tommy began, it is a couple of minutes later and Tommy has rounded up the Jackson militia and the people, "this is how it's going to play out." He said to the people of Jackson. "We got lots of guns, for us." Tommy added. "But the first ones to get their hand on them, are the ones who are going to help search for Joel." He then called out a couple of militia men, "Earl, Jason (some middle-aged, guard there), Nick (a young guard there), and Mason (a guard who looked like he was in his 30s, with a beard somewhat like Joel's, but was pure black equipped with a ballistic vest, riot helmet, and military boots, but changed the under shirt), Ellie will accompany you on your search. Keep her safe." Tommy said.

"You got it Sir" Mason said.

"Mason you're in charge."

They headed out into the woods to look for some clues to what happened to Joel. "Hey! Over here!" Earl shouted. "Looks like his rifle, Ellie you're the expert on him, is this his rifle?"

"Yeah" Ellie responded.

"Good, we found something, keep searching." Mason said. Ellie searched around, _Man, maybe I should have gone with Joel to hunt. Now I am paying for it._ Ellie told herself.

"Nick!" Mason began, the shout had been at a random that it kind of startled Ellie. "Quit swinging that rifle that way!" Mason walked up to him and took the rifle out of his hand for a minute. Mason checked if it was on safety first and then threw the rifle back at Nick's chest. "This is an M4 rifle you are lucky to be carrying one of these in your lifetime!" He finally finished pointing to the M4 in Nick's arms.

"Sorry sir, won't happen again" Jason said and readjusted the rifle in his arms, and pointed the muzzle down.

"Sorry won't be good enough next time, because if that weapon wasn't on safety, and you accidently pull the trigger, you could of killed most of us. Now fall in line"

"Yes sir," Nick said.

After the drama, Ellie then found a rifle bullet casing. "Hey!" Ellie said, "Look what I found" she said holding up the bullet casing.

"Yup, that's a rifle bullet casing" Earl said.

"Don't you think they'll be blood near be if he was shot" Jason stated. Mason looked at him and said.

"Your right Jason." Earl said.

 _Man Joel, where could of you gone._ Ellie told herself.

It was getting dark, and they had searched for hours, with little clues of what happened to Joel. They started heading back to the settlement. Ellie looked disappointed and sad at the same time. She continued to make her way to the house she lived in. She was hungry and tired. She wanted to sleep, but she couldn't because she was hungry.

Maria was in the kitchen, cooking something for Ellie.

"What's for dinner" Ellie asked and grabbed a chair.

"Well, I got you some chicken." Maria said. Ellie looked at the chicken with her mouthwatering, "Mmm, looks good"

"Yup enjoy, just for you, and I left you fresh clothes on your bed" she told Ellie.

"Okay" she said. She ate like she hadn't eaten years. After, she went to take a shower, it had given her to time to think. _Don't worry Joel, we'll find you._


	5. Chapter 5

JOEL: CHAPTER 5: Captured

Joel woke up tided against a chair. "What the fuck!" Joel shouted. A Firefly looked at him.

"You'd been out for about 2 days" he told him."

Joel looked at him with anger, "Why the hell am I here?!" Joel shouted the question.

"You don't ask the questions" said the Firefly, as he got closer to him to punch directly in the face.

"You piece of shit, I am going to kill you when I get out!" Joel shouted at the Firefly.

The Firefly negatively nodded at Joel, "Who says you're going to get out?" All of a sudden another Firefly walked in.

"I kept him busy, Sir" The Firefly said. The Firefly, that recently entered, nodded back at the other. He grabbed a chair from behind him, and sat down.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Joel said.

"Careful how you address me" the Firefly said. "You can't treat the leader of the Fireflies that way."

Joel looked confused. "Excuse me." Joel said.

"You heard me" the Firefly said. Joel started to laugh. "Something funny" the Firefly said.

"It's just that, the last I heard, your leader has been dead for quite some time" Joel said.

"You know for sure, don't you? I know you killed her, I was Marlene's second in command, Alex Johnson. I was her most trusted. I was the one closest to reaching elevator, before you took off and shot Marlene. The rest of the Fireflies turned to me after Marlene's death. I've spent so much time recruiting new Fireflies, training more and more. We've remained in the shadows, I have called back all the Fireflies for this reason. The Military probably thinks we're all dead." Alex explained.

"So, why do you need me?" Joel said.

"You're going to tell us where the immune is." Alex said.

"Good luck" Joel said.

"We're going to do it by any means necessary" Alex said as he threw his fist at Joel stomach.

Joel screamed in pain. "You son of bitch!"

"This could all be over you know, if you just told us where she is." Alex said.

"Never!" Joel shouted again.

"But I ain't cruel, feed him" Alex said. "It seems like you're going to be here for a long time."


	6. Chapter 6

TOMMY: CHAPTER 6: Another Day

It's been about a week ever since Joel went missing. Tommy was about to leave to the dam, until he notice Ellie crying on Joel's bed. He walked in to see what was going on. "Ellie… is everything alright?" Tommy asked.

Ellie turned around to Tommy with tears in her eyes, she responded weakly, "No."

Tommy got closer to Ellie and gave her a hug. "I know you miss him, so do I, but we got to move past this, Ellie. You got to be a big girl."

"But, it's so hard" Ellie said with tears in her eyes.

"I know" Tommy said. Luckily Ellie fell asleep while crying. . . So he didn't have to try and calm her down.

Tommy made his way to his men. "Hey, Mason, Earl, Jason, and Nick, I need you to watch over Ellie" Tommy ordered.

"How come, sir." Mason said.

"I'm getting worried about her. And don't make your rifles noticeable. I don't want you make her seem that she is in prison"

Tommy's men headed for his house to watch over Ellie. He then heard Mason talking to Nick. "He was talking about you, Nick"

Tommy continued to make his way to the dam. There was nothing new to do at the dam when he got there. Tommy had an idea to get the other two generators working. It would make power a lot faster. As the day progressed at the day, Tommy went to his office. Tommy sat in a chair near the desk, then he started to remember when he used to be Sarah's uncle.

It seemed that he missed those times. Sarah had always respected his uncle. Now, Tommy wants that back.

For the rest of the day, he sat at a desk, bored, until the engineers asked him what they needed to do. Tommy had let Maria stay home that day, to take care of Ellie. The day was coming to an end. He started making his way back to Jackson.

He finally made it to Jackson. Tommy told his men they can go home. Tommy seemed hungry. "What's dinner Maria?" Tommy asked.

"Well today I made pizza" Maria said.

"Huh? I haven't eaten that like in 20 years." Tommy said. "Well gave some to Ellie, and she seemed to like it." Tommy still felt uncomfortable about eating pizza made by Maria.

"Alright, I'll bite. Where is Ellie?"

"She's asleep, she had a long day" Maria said.

Tommy actually enjoyed that pizza. After that he fell asleep with his wife.


	7. Chapter 7

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 7: Jackson

It's been about 10 months since Joel went missing. It was cold day, with snow everywhere.

Captain Pineda was a Captain in the Texan Army. He is equip with a tan helmet with the Lone Star flag on the side of it. He had a military backpack, with the Texas flag on it, on the right side of it was a sharp machete. He had orange military glasses on his face. He had a tan ballistic vest on his chest (with the Texan flag on it) with some equipment on it, like ammo, sometimes grenades, if he was lucky.

Equipped with an M4 assault rifle, and a 9mm pistol. He also had a gas mask on his right leg near his vest. He was squad leader of his squad. Captain Pineda also had a brown beard. His uniform tan, so were his pants, Texan flag on his sleeves. Along with tan combat gloves. The rest of his squad looked similar (expect they didn't have a beard), his second in command and his most trusted, Cruz, wore a military hat, which had the Texan flag on it. Cruz also never wore any eyewear. Instead of Cruz having a 9mm pistol as a secondary, he had a tactical shotgun. The rest, Anderson, Walker, Baker, and Allen, wore army goggles as eyewear, and had the same equipment as their Captain.

They reached the forest near Jackson, with lots of snow on their uniforms.

"Bravo 6, this is Austin 2-1, we are approaching Jackson, do you copy?" Captain Pineda said through his radio.

"Copy, command says proceed with caution, we don't know if they are hostile," Bravo 6 warned

"Copy that" Captain Pineda responded.

"Alright, good luck, Bravo 6 out" Bravo 6 finished.

He and his squad continued through the forest. "Sir, do you think this mission is risky?" Cruz asked.

"No Cruz, I believe this will be a simple mission, we here for the immune, and to seal a deal. That's it," Captain Pineda said.

"Captain, you know I am a Lieutenant, right?" Cruz said.

"Yes I do, that's why you're my second in command," Captain Pineda answered

"Roasted" Allen blurted.

"Shut up, Allen," Cruz ordered.

They continued through the forest, and located the gate to Jackson. "Stop right there!" A man on top of a lookout tower ordered.

Captain Pineda looked at the man and said, "We don't mean you no harm, we just want to talk"

"About what?" Another man said, who turned out to be Tommy. Tommy looked confused, as he notice the Texan flag on Captain Pineda's sleeve, and helmet. "Why the fuck are you wearing that?" Tommy asked him, while he gun pointed at him.

"Texas is now its own country" Captain Pineda. Tommy looked hesitant.

"Let them in, they're not bandits, or enemy military." Tommy ordered. Mason opened the gate and let the 6 soldier in.

"So, why are Texan soldiers out here?" Tommy asked. Captain Pineda looked at Tommy.

"Texas is willing to offer a deal." Captain Pineda answered his question. "I'm listening" Tommy said. "Texas offers protection, no more risking your men, guns, supplies, food, and training your militia" Captain Pineda said.

"For what?" Tommy asked. "For the immune, Ellie, I believe." Captain Pineda said.

"I… I can't just do that."

"Why not?" Captain Pineda asked.

"You don't understand-"

And then the Texan soldier heard some clicks in the forest. "Fuckin' clickers" Cruz said.

"Uh… Captain…" Walker said with fear.

"Stand your ground men" Captain Pineda ordered.

Tommy looked at the gate guard, Mason, and shouted, "Close the fuckin' gate!" Mason closed it, and notice clickers climbing the wall, and started shooting them. The watch tower men shot as many rifle shells as possible. Captain Pineda opened fire his M4.

The clickers had started climbing over the wall and made their way towards Pineda's squad. The rest of Pineda's soldiers started shooting them. Cruz wacked a clicker with the stock of his shotgun, the clicker hit the floor, and Cruz put a whole shotgun shell the clickers head.

Some clickers were smart they went for the one of the watchtower, the militiaman at the tower tried to take them out, but they overwhelmed them. The clickers managed to tip the tower, causing it to fall to the right. The militiaman tried to escaped the tower, his rifle had slid 3 yards away from the tower when it fell, he tried to reach it but couldn't.

The Clickers narrowed in on the militiaman. He then let out a scream, "Ahhh! Help!" Luckily Allen noticed, Allen took out his machete, he ran towards the Clicker, the machete landed on the right side of its neck. "Get away from him! You son of a bitch," Allen said. Killing it. Then another one emerged behind the tower. With the machete still stuck deep in the dead Clickers neck. He quickly took out his 9mm pistol and put 3 bullets in the clickers head. Two to penetrate the fungus shell, and one to kill the clicker.

Tommy turned around and a clicker attacked him and nearly bit him, but then Captain Pineda shot the clicker with his 9mm pistol. "Thanks" Tommy said.

They took out most of them, Mason shot the second to the last one. Then, Captain Pineda ran at the last one with his machete, and sliced off the head of the last clicker.

"Is everyone alright?" Captain Pineda asked.

"We're fine. And Mason! Get that son of a bitch out of that tower, and when he's out, lift that tower back up" Tommy said.

"So, is it a deal?" Captain Pineda asked.

"I need to talk to Ellie" Tommy said.

"Take your time." Captain Pineda said.


	8. Chapter 8

TOMMY: CHAPTER 8: We need to talk

Tommy left Captain Pineda with his squad, and he went back to his house. It seemed to be getting dark. Tommy arrived at his house. "Ellie we need to talk." Tommy said.

Ellie had turned 15 already. The day of her birthday she felt really sad that Joel couldn't be there.

"Comin'" Ellie replied.

Tommy sat down on the dining table and waited for Ellie to come down the stairs. Ellie came down the stairs with jeans, and a black shirt with a skull on it. "What's up Tommy?" Ellie asked.

"Today, you probably heard about the clicker attack." Tommy said.

"Yeah" Ellie said.

"Texan soldiers came today… They aided us, and showed us what they can do. If it wasn't for them, we could still be fighting them at this moment."

"Texan soldiers, like from Texas" Ellie interrupted.

"Yeah, they made an offer that really is hard to say no to."

"What's the offer?" Ellie asked.

"Protection, guns, training, supplies, and food. All for you." Tommy said.

Ellie hesitated and said, "No. I'm not leaving, what happens if Joel comes back."

"I thought you wanted this, before Joel went missing, he told me himself that you wanted to get to the Fireflies. Don't want to hurt your feelings, Ellie, but I don't think Joel is coming back. He's been gone for about a year. Please, Ellie I need to do this for us." Tommy looked back at Ellie, then he notice that tears were building up in Ellie's eyes. Ellie nodded,

"I'll do it" she said. Ellie hugged Tommy for some time, Tommy liked the feeling.

Afterwards Tommy thanked Ellie what she had done. Tommy realized after what just happened, he knew what he wanted, a kid. He went up the stairs into his room, where Maria was. "Maria" he began, "I want to have a baby"

Maria began to cry with tears of joy, she had been trying to convince him to have a baby. And now she got what she wanted.


	9. Chapter 9

ELLIE: CHAPTER 9: Some life

Ellie put on her jacket, and head outside into the snow. _Colder than usual._ She thought to herself. Ellie continue to make her way into the snow, and notice a camp fire near the wall. It turned out to be Captain Pineda, and his crew of Texan soldiers.

 _I guess those are the soldiers Tommy told me about._ She told herself inside her head. Captain Pineda was awake while the rest of them were asleep in 5 different tents. Captain Pineda was awake trying to keep warm. _How could those soldiers sleep in this cold?_ Ellie again thought to herself.

She started to walk up to Captain Pineda siting on a log. "How do your men sleep in the cold?" Ellie asked Captain Pineda.

Captain Pineda trying to keep warmth threw some more logs into the fire, and then replied, "We've seen harsher days. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I don't know" Ellie said.

"Okay then." Captain Pineda said.

"Did Tommy tell you that he agreed to your deal?" Ellie asked.

"No, he did?" Captain Pineda responded.

"Yeah" Ellie said. Ellie could see the expression on his face, it looked like he just lost someone.

"What's up with you?" Ellie asked him.

"Come take a seat on the log" Captain Pineda said.

Ellie took a seat on a log near Captain Pineda. "Before I tell you what I am going to tell you, I need to do something" he added. He took out his satellite radio and started talking into it, "Bravo 6, do you copy, this is Austin 2-1."

"Austin 2-1 we copy" Bravo 6 said.

"Tell command that the deal is sealed." Captain Pineda said.

"Copy that, transport helicopters inbound, ETA 15 hours. Bravo 6 out."

Captain Pineda moved his backpack, so it would be in front of him. From there he shoved the satellite radio into his backpack. After placing his radio into his backpack, he then moved the pack, so it would be on his back. He turned to Ellie, and said, "What's your name?"

Ellie was questioning herself to whether tell him her name or not, but he seemed to be trusted. "Ellie" she said.

"Nice to meet you, Ellie." Captain Pineda said and went back to feeding the fire.

"What about you, what's your name." Ellie asked.

Captain Pineda continued to throw logs into the fire, and said, "Captain Edward Joseph Pineda, formally apart of the 2nd Regiment's 3rd Battalion."

"That's a long name." Ellie said.

"Yeah, you can call me Eddie for short." Captain Pineda said.

"Okay" Ellie responded. Captain Pineda grabbed a stick and pointed to Ellie.

"When I was your age, 13 right?"

Ellie hated that lots of people couldn't get her age right, "15," she corrected.

Captain Pineda continued, "Well, back in the day, about 16 years back."

"I was your age, 15, I was in the Brownsville QZ. I lost my family. I was in that school for the military. This was a time when soldiers were starting to have different uniform. Blue was starting to be more common, than camo. It wasn't that long until the military withdrew from the QZ. The people of the QZ had to become independent. We found lots of weapons in the military barracks. We trained and decided to make our own country. So, we reformed Texas, after we had lots of people to be in our Army we headed out for Austin, its original Capital. We made Austin our Capital. Then that's how everything started to work out."

"Then, I met Cruz, about 10 years back, and he became part of my squad. Then came the others, not these guys" he said, while pointing to his soldiers in the tents. "They didn't come until like a year ago. From then on, Lieutenant Cruz and I had been through a lot. We've seen a nuclear bomb destroy an entire city. Fought against the ugliest of infected. Seen squad mates die, friends, and brothers. That's my story. So who's this Joel guy? I've been hearing about him."

Ellie didn't know what to say. She decided to tell him everything, up to the point after they arrived at Jackson. After that, Captain Pineda's face was amazed. "Wow, so where is he now?"

Ellie didn't tell him that he went missing. "He has been missing for about a year now." She said. After she said this tears couldn't hold anymore, they were released. Ellie then turned towards Captain Pineda, she gave him a hug.

"Woah." Captain Pineda didn't know what to do, so he just went along with it. "You got to be a big girl, Ellie." Captain Pineda said. "I understand Ellie, when I lost my Family- I couldn't… it was hard for me to recover." Captain Pineda said.

"It's just so hard" Ellie said weakly.

"If it makes you feel better, I and my squad can go look into the forest." Captain Pineda said.

"Okay" Ellie said. Ellie ended up falling asleep on Captain Pineda. Captain Pineda then carried her to into her house.


	10. Chapter 10

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 10: Texas Strong

It was starting to become spring, the snow began to melt a little. Captain Pineda woke up on the log. "Holy…" Captain Pineda began. _Oh yeah, I here. Man why couldn't command allow us to launch this mission in the spring, instead we had to do it in the winter._ Captain Pineda thought to himself. His squad was still asleep. Captain Pineda started checking his equipment. _Everything good, we should live until evac arrives._ He got up from the log and said, "Hey wake the fuck up!" Captain Pineda shouted. He intended to wake up his squad, he possibly woke up some people of Jackson.

His squad got up from the camp and started picking up. "Sir, did you have to yell that loud?" Allen asked while picking up his tent.

"Shut the fuck up, Sargent Allen, I don't know how else to wake you up. Reinforcements will be here soon, that's our ride." Captain Pineda informed his squad.

It had been about 3 hours later. The transport helicopters had arrived, they're three of them. They were big helicopters, not meant to fight, just to transport troops. They landed outside of the gate. Twenty soldiers emerged from each helicopter. Sixty in total. The gate remained open for the troops to make their way inside. "There's our ride" Captain Pineda said.

They made their way to one of the helicopters. A pilot walked out of the ramp of the transport helicopter and said, "Where do think you're going?" Captain Pineda looked confused. "New orders, you and your squad are going to be stationed here. And give this to Tommy" the pilot handed Captain Pineda a piece of paper.

The 60 soldiers had walked into the Jackson. They all went into rows of 15 (4 rows). The soldiers were in the rows with their same soldier variation. The first variation is the Assault, they look very similar to the Captain's squad. Some of the Assault soldiers wore their gas mask. The next that came was the Tactical. Looking very similar to Battlefield 4's "Engineer", the main difference is the fact that on the hat had the Texan flag. Tactical soldiers, carry either, an M4 Carbine, MP5, or a tactical shotgun. Equipment is very similar to the Assault, the main key difference is the fact that they carry a RPG with them, replacing their melee weapon. In the 3rd row was filled with Support soldiers, also looking very similar to Battlefield 4's "Support", the difference would have to be the fact that the Texan Flag replaces the U.S. Carrying an M249 LMG. And finally the last one, Recon/Scout. Looking again similar to Battlefield 4's "Recon". Instead of having face paint, most had a bandana covering half of their face. Carrying the following weapons, majority of then would carry an M14 rifle, or a M4 Carbine.

Tommy came outside to watch. "Look what we got here" Tommy said. Captain Pineda gave the piece of paper to Tommy, Captain Pineda didn't bother to read it. "General of the Jackson Texan Army Encampment. What do think of that, Captain?"

Captain Pineda grabbed the piece of paper from Tommy's hand. And read it, "I don't know what to say, I've never seen someone start at such a high rank." Captain Pineda said.

2 out of the 3 helicopters had left. The 3rd one was meant to transport Ellie to the Capital. The same pilot that had told Captain Pineda to inform Tommy of his promotion, walked into the Jackson. "Where is the immune, Ellie?" the pilot said. Ellie stood there and watched, and then made her way to the pilot. "Ellie?" the pilot asked.

"Yes sir." Ellie responded. "Come with me" the pilot said.

Captain Pineda looked and saw the helicopter lift off and make its way back to the Capitol. _Man that's going to be a long ride. Well doesn't matter, I'm going to be here for some time._ He thought to himself. He starred at the helicopter until he wasn't able to see it anymore.

"Something wrong, Captain?" Tommy asked.

"No, nothing sir." Captain Pineda responded.

Tommy started to assign his troops to jobs most were assigned to the wall. The remaining 15, who happened to be the Recon platoon, were sent to the dam to protect it.

Captain Pineda and his squad were assigned to stay and patrol Jackson. Mason, the gate guard, was promoted by Tommy. Mason became the commander of all gate related missions, such as patrols, searches, authorizing missions outside the gate, and leaving the gate and entering the gate. Mason's uniform didn't change much, he just change his under shirt, one that had the Texan Flag on the sleeves.

It had begun to get dark. Captain Pineda made his camp in the same place, so did other additional soldiers. _I'm going to be here for a long time._ He told himself and fell asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

JOEL: CHAPTER 11: Escape

They had nearly broken Joel. But Joel didn't break. He was bruised all over his face. Still tied up against the chair.

Then Alex walked in, with a knife in his hand."You gonna tell us yet?" Alex asked.

"Never!" Joel yelled.

Alex was aiming for his knee. "Suit yourself" Alex said and threw his knife into Joel's knee.

"Ahhhh! You… Son of a bitch!" Alex was about go the other until Joel finally broke. "Jackson," Joel said weakly.

"What?" Alex asked.

"She is in Jackson." Joel said.

A Firefly walked in. Alex dropped his knife near Joel and made his way towards the Firefly. "We got what we need, prepare the 10th Legion." Alex ordered. Both of the Fireflies left, and Joel had an idea.

Joel notice the knife on the floor. He tried moving closer, but he had to take it little by little so he won't injury his knee even more. He was near the knife, he moved his chair and fell on its side. He was able to get the knife. He grabbed it with his hand and freed his arms from the chair, and then his legs. He got up and his knee started to ache. He opened the door and limbed out.

There was no Fireflies in that hallway. He opened a door to the right. He realized it was the storage room. He found his backpack and grabbed a spare heath kit in the room. He wrapped it around his knee to stop bleeding and hopefully heal the wound. He didn't have any weapons in his pack.

He continued his way out of the hall. He found a door, he opened it and there was Firefly standing guard. He grabbed him and stabbed his knife into his neck. Joel grabbed the now dead Firefly's M4. _Not a lot of ammo better use it as a last resort._ He told himself.

After killing the Firefly he realized he was at the hospital. He kept walking in the hospital in the day light. He made his way down a bridge and notice a whole group of Fireflies outside. _There thousands, I have to sneak out quietly._

He later found the underground parking lot, filled with armored vehicles. Some were Humvees with turrets on the top, with Firefly logos all over them. _Oh god, what have I done, Jackson's militia doesn't stand a chance._ He took one of the Humvees, threw the M4 on the seat to the right. He was about to for Jackson, but he notice a piece of paper inside the Humvee, the piece of paper that said…

 _Join or Die_

 _Join the Fireflies today! Why? Only the Fireflies will have the vaccine (when we obtain it). The Firefly Empire has one of the biggest armies standing. With Over 2,000 legionaries per each legion, there is always space. Let's not forgot of the 50,000 plus legionaries in service today. Join the future global empire. Think about it, and try bringing the following. Bring your weapons, cars, trucks, anything useful. Become powerful today!_

Joel started the Humvee, and made his way to Jackson. Luckily they didn't notice him.


	12. Chapter 12

JOEL: CHAPTER 12: Family Reunion

After a long drive, he arrived at a late afternoon. He parked the Humvee next to the car he used to get to Jackson the first time. The snow had already melted completely, making it the beginning of spring.

He made his way down the woods. He got closer to the gate and notice Mason at the gate, Mason looked at Joel with relief. "Joel?" Mason said.

"Mason" The two bro-hugged each other, the two had been good friends at a time.

"I'll tell Tommy you're here." Mason grabbed his walkie-talkie from his ballistic vest, and spoke into it. "Get me General Tommy"

"General Tommy?" Joel asked.

"Yeah, long story" Mason said.

"Who the hell are these soldiers?" Joel asked.

"They're Texan soldiers, they protect us" Mason said. "Tommy knows more about it" Mason said.

Tommy soon approached Joel followed by two soldiers, one of them was Captain Pineda, the other was a masked Tactical soldier (from now on masked refers to someone wearing a gas mask, he had flipped his combat hat). Tommy looked nervous as he approached Joel. "Hey Joel, long time no see" Tommy said.

"Who are these soldiers?" Joel asked.

"They're Texan soldiers" Tommy replied.

"Yeah I know that, but why are they here?" Joel asked. Tommy didn't want to answer that question. "Never mind that, where's Ellie?"

Tommy's face grew more nervous. Even Captain Pineda grew nervous, since he knew what happened to her. Then Tommy finally decided to respond. "Try the Capital" Tommy said ready to receive some kind of punch to the face.

"What? Which Capital!?" Joel asked in raged.

"The Texan Capital" Tommy responded. Joel wasn't mad at Tommy just upset. Then, a tear appeared in his eye.

"Why was she sent to the Capital?" Joel asked.

"To get something out of her, for a vaccine." Tommy said. Joel's worst fears had finally come to true, after what Marlene told him, about getting out fungus parasite from the brain, causing her death. He felt like he had failed her.

"Tommy do you know what will happen if they take it out?" Joel asked.

"No, what?" Tommy asked.

"It will kill her in the process." Joel said. This made his brother feel bad of what he had done.

Then Captain Pineda spoke out. "Permission to speak freely, Sir?" Captain Pineda asked.

"Sure, what the hell is it"? Tommy asked.

"Ellie will live the operation." Captain Pineda said.

Joel's face looked confused. "But the Fireflies told me-"

"The Fireflies didn't have the tech we have. They don't have the best surgeons, if you like, the next helicopter that gets here tomorrow, can take you to Austin. There you can see Ellie. A soldier can escort you there" Captain Pineda said.

"Are you serious about her livin'?" Joel asked.

"Yes" Captain Pineda said.

"So it's settled, the next transport helicopter that gets here will be your ride" Tommy said. The masked soldier walked near him and whispered something in his ear. "Oh, that's right" Tommy said.

"What it is?" Joel asked.

"It's just the status on our barracks."

"Oh" Joel said.

Out of nowhere Maria came. She actually seemed happy to see her brother-in-law. "Joel, where have you been?" Maria asked.

"Try Salt Lake City" Joel responded. Maria wondered why he was there.

"Why were you there?" Maria asked.

"The Fireflies interrogated me" Joel said. Captain Pineda and the masked soldier just stood there awkwardly because it had nothing to do with them.

"Huh? Why in the hell did they do that?" Tommy asked. Joel didn't want to answer, but he did.

"They wanted to know where Ellie was" Tommy looked surprised at the fact that they interrogated him.

"Who interrogated you? Marlene?" Joel didn't want to tell his brother that he shot Marlene about a year back.

"The new leader Alex Johnson." Joel said.

"You mean that tyrant? What happened to Marlene?" Tommy asked.

It was time for Joel to face the light, but it didn't come out good. Joel starred back at his brother. "Uhhh…" Joel couldn't finish what he was going to say. He just couldn't say what happen. "Can I talk to you privately?" Joel asked him.

"Sure, this way we'll talk at our house."

The two soldiers, Joel, Tommy, and Maria made their way to Tommy/Maria's house. Tommy stopped and turned to his soldiers. "You two, stay here. I'll be fine, guard the house" Tommy ordered.

"Yes, sir" Captain Pineda said tiredly.

The three of them entered the house. Joel started walking towards the kitchen table, put his old backpack down on the table, and said, "Ain't been here in a while" Joel sat down and so did Maria and Tommy.

Tommy remembered what they were talking about. "Yeah. You didn't answer my question about Marlene."

"Tommy… I know I am goin' sound really selfish right now, the Fireflies didn't stop looking for a cure…" Joel said.

"What?" Tommy asked. "I… I couldn't let them do that to Ellie, I couldn't let them take her. She…"

Joel looked down so that Maria and Tommy wouldn't notice him slowly tearing up. Joel slammed the table. "I killed Marlene! I took her from the hospital! I couldn't let them take her away from me! She has made my life worth living, ever since Sarah. She's like a daughter to me! I just couldn't…" Joel shouted. _Boy that felt good to let out._ He told himself.

Tommy and Maria look shocked. They didn't know what to say. It was silent for a least 2 minutes. Tommy didn't know which one shocked him more, the fact that he killed Marlene, or the fact that he accepted Ellie as his daughter. Still silence, until Joel broke it, "They're planning on attacking Jackson" Joel said. "And they have armored vehicles, they now want to have the cure to themselves." Joel added

"How do we not know you're lyin'?" Tommy asked. Joel had that coming.

"Okay Tommy, he's had a rough day." Maria said as she put her hand on his shoulder.

"I believe you about the Fireflies wantin' to keep the vaccine. Alex was always tryin' to get Marlene to agree on that when I was a Firefly. But I don't know about the armored vehicles and the Fireflies wanting to attack Jackson. They didn't have that when I was a Firefly. Did you find out who's leading the attack?" Tommy asked.

"Something called the 10th Legion." Joel answered.

"Oh no, this is bad." Tommy got up from his chair and started pacing back in forth.

"What's the 10th Legion?" Joel asked.

Tommy was afraid of the 10th legion attacking. "They're the largest Firefly group in the Fireflies. They're also the most elite." Tommy said.

"Can't you use these soldiers to defend against them?" Joel asked.

But now Maria had to get on this, "There isn't enough troops" Maria said.

"She's right, there is only like 120 soldiers here at the moment, 90 here, 30 at the dam." Tommy said.

"More will come over time, but it seems like they're about to attack." Maria said.

Tommy started to realize that his brother had a long day. "Just go get some sleep, Joel. We'll handle it." Tommy said.

"Are you sure?" Joel asked.

"Yes, now go get some sleep" Tommy told his older brother.

Joel got up from his chair, got his backpack. "Alright" Joel said. He went upstairs. Then he saw Ellie's room. He walked in her room. Her backpack was on the floor. He opened it and found a couple of things. He found her comics, a letter from her mother, Riley Abel's penitent, Sam's robot, her joke books and her _SONY Walkman_. _Hmm, Ellie must have taken her pistol._ He thought to himself

Joel put her stuff back on the floor and went to his room. _Time to sleep_. Maria and Tommy were right, he did have a long day, and way to end it with some sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 13: Bandit Assault

It was another morning at Jackson, sort of. Captain Pineda had been dismissed yesterday for dinner. Now another 3 transport helicopters arrived. But, instead of just the new 60 soldiers, the transport helicopters were carrying 1 Humvee each. Captain Pineda looked at the helicopters release the Humvees. _Nice that's what I am talking about._ He told himself. Then he saw Joel run towards the helicopter with 2 backpacks, his and Ellie's. The new 60 soldiers arrived and the same went.

It seemed like a normal day until Tommy's voice came on a speaker. "Austin 2-1, report to the community center for a quick meeting" _Wonder what he wants._ Captain Pineda told himself.

It didn't take him long to reach the community center. The community center was just a giant cafeteria with lots of tables and chairs. No one was in the room accept for his squad, Tommy, and a Flame trooper (Flame troopers are look pretty similar to Texan Support soldiers. They looked bulkier, have oxygen tanks on his back. A gas mask with tubes to connect with one of the tanks. The other oxygen tank was for the flamethrower, similar to Joel's) Tommy stood up and put one leg on a chair. Everyone else sat down, the only one missing was Captain Pineda. Captain Pineda entered and took a seat.

"Alright" Tommy said "A recon team located a bandit camp not that far from here. I have decided that we need to take the fight to them, they have been a threat to Jackson for a long time. You're goin' to need smoke grenades and some thermal optics. Take them out, check their tents for supplies, and then burn them down, Pineda you're in charge" _Why wouldn't I be?_ Captain Pineda told himself. "Private First Class Medina, the Flame trooper, will accompany you, Pineda this is the mission directive, hand it to Mason. Now get a move on." Tommy said and handed the mission directive (a piece of paper) to Captain Pineda. After that he and his squad grabbed a couple of smoke grenades, and a thermal optic each.

Captain Pineda's squad and PFC Medina made their way to the gate. A long the way he saw two Assault unmasked regular soldiers walk by, patrolling he guessed. He then was able to see the gate. Mason stood there with two other soldiers, armed to the teeth, carrying M4 assault rifles. One of the soldiers was a Support variation. The Support soldier had a riot visor on his helmet, which happened to be facing to his face. The other, Assault, who had his goggles strapped around his helmet.

Captain Pineda walk up to Mason, Mason then asked, "Mission directive?" Captain Pineda handed the mission directive to Mason. Mason took it, grabbed his radio, and spoke into it."Confirm mission directive 8-7." Mason said. Then a voice spoke back to him.

"Confirm mission directive 8-7 is a good" the man from the radio said.

"Alright go on through" Mason said.

All 7 of the soldiers started walking through the woods. All was silent until Walker and Baker started arguing about some girl back in Jackson.

"No, Baker, I'm pretty sure she winked at me" Walker began. "No, Walker I'm…"

"HEY! Both of you! Shut the fuck up!" Captain Pineda said. After Captain Pineda yelled at them both of them, they were silent.

Sure, most of the time they got along, but sometimes Walker and Baker got annoying with their arguing. Allen and Cruz always stayed on Captain Pineda's good side. Both Baker and Walker were the ones he needed to keep an eye on. Let's not forget Anderson, he was most of the time in between.

Cruz then decided to talk. "So this is a couple of weeks, huh?" Cruz said.

"Yeah, feels like forever." Captain Pineda said. Captain Pineda then started adjusting his rifle to equip his thermal optic. "You guys better do the same thing, because we're getting close" His squad started doing the same thing as his Captain.

"How much further Captain?" Anderson said. Captain Pineda looked back at him.

"We're close" he responded. They got close to the bandit camp. "There." Captain Pineda pointed to the camp from a hill.

His squad and PFC Medina made their way down the hill, quietly. They then surrounded the camp. "Alright now" Captain Pineda whispered. His squad threw their smoke grenades. The smoke grenades went off. Captain Pineda aimed down his thermal optic, located some bandits leaving their tents.

"What the fuck!" a bandit said. It seemed like there was at least 30 bandits.

Then Captain Pineda gave the order, "Fire!" Captain Pineda and his whole squad opened fire. THUN went the rifles. Over and over. Captain Pineda saw bandits try and fight back, but got themselves killed in the process.

"Ahhh!" went a masked bandit. Then a masked bandit crawled towards a tent, but then Allen shot him. The camp filled with the sound of gunfire. A bandit manage to grab his shotgun, but was put down immediately by Anderson.

It was a surprise attack, they didn't know Jackson had an army stationed at the settlement, since Jackson was always on the defensive. More gunfire filled the camp. More death moans everywhere, blood on the grass, bullet casings joined the blood.

After another 5 minutes, it was over. The smoke had cleared. All the bandits at the camp were dead. Captain Pineda's squad scavenged the area. They found some alcohol, rags, and some explosives. Pineda's squad then finished scavenging. Captain Pineda turned to PFC Medina who had done nothing through the entire massacre. "Alright Medina, burn it down." Captain Pineda ordered.

PFC Medina readied his flamethrower. Medina burned down the tents that were there. Captain Pineda looked at the flames burn the tents. Captain Pineda didn't feel like a soldier anymore, instead he felt like a hunter. Before he ordered his squad to head back to Jackson. A wounded bandit crawled out of a burning tent.

All of his squad mates aimed at him. "Put your hands in the air!" ordered Sargent Allen. The bandit got to his knees and put one hand in the air. The other was covering a wound near his stomach.

Captain Pineda still wondered what to do with him. Walker then looked back at his Captain and said, "Sir, do we take prisoners?"

"Please," the bandit began, "I'll tell you anything, why we are here, and other things."

"Shut the fuck up" Cruz said, threatening to hit him in the head with the stock of the shotgun.

"Wait Cruz, the General may want to hear about this." Captain Pineda said. He grabbed his radio from his vest, "Sir, this is Austin 2-1, do you copy?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Tommy said.

"General, we encountered a survivor, a potential prisoner. He may have some valuable information."

"Fine we will put him in the old county jail, we see what he has to say."

After that conversation he ordered his squad and Medina to return to Jackson.


	14. Chapter 14

JOEL: CHAPTER 14: The Capital

Joel woke up in the transport helicopter. The pilot had woken him up. The pilot then said, "Sorry sir, but this is your stop."

Joel then nodded back at the pilot.

Joel exited the helicopter, a soldier was awaiting his arrival. Soldier looked like any other Texan soldier, but it seemed like he was in his early 20s, dark skinned, and had a mustache. "Let's go" the soldier said. Joel followed his into an army jeep. The soldier started the jeep, Joel sat in the back.

Joel couldn't believe what he was seeing. It seemed like no pandemic hit them, soldiers weren't harsh to citizens. Soldiers still walk around, to look for infected though. The soldier drove all the way to the hospital, where Ellie was being kept.

Joel got off the jeep and walk into the large hospital. He walked up to the desk. A man sat there. "I'm looking for Ellie" Joel asked.

"Second floor room 267," a man in navy blue scrubs said.

Joel thanked the man behind the desk. He entered the elevator with both of the backpacks, and ascended.

Joel walked into the second floor. _264… 265… 266… 267!_ Joel thought to himself. A soldier stood guard at the door. The soldier look like any other Texan Assault soldier, but he had an orange painted helmet. To signify his high rank. Joel walked up to him, and said, "I'm here to see Ellie"

The soldier then responded. "Yes sir, General Tommy told us we'll be here." The soldier then opened the door.

The soldier walked in first, and looked at Ellie on the hospital bed. She had a bandage around the back part of her head. "Ellie, you have a guest." The soldier said. Joel now entered.

His eyes darted at Ellie. "Ellie" Joel said softly

"Joel" Ellie said.

Joel ran towards her on the bed. Joel hugged her on the bed. Tears of joy streamed from both Joel's and Ellie's. "Oh baby girl, I thought I would never see you again." Joel said to Ellie.

"Joel… I missed you."

Their reunion was short lived. The soldier that had let Joel in then grabbed his radio. "What?! Jackson is under attack! Let's go people you guys need to get back."

All that went into Joel's minds was the Fireflies. He had lied to Ellie, he knew she would never forgive him. "We got to go," said the soldier.

"All 3rd Battalion members, report to Austin Air Base! This is not a drill!" said a huge speaker in the hospital.

"How are we goin' to get back?" Joel asked.

"It's your lucky day, Marshall Commander Jett, Commander of the 3rd Battalion," Commander Jett said and shook Joel's hand, "I can get you two to Jackson. Ellie the nurse should have cleared you, so you should be able to checkout without any problem. Alright follow me!"

The three left the hospital, taking to the stairs. In no time, they stood at the entrance of the hospital. "Come on, get in that jeep!" Commander Jett pointed to a jeep. Commander Jett got in the driver's seat, Joel in the passenger, and Ellie at the back.

Commander Jett drove as fast as could. Along the way they saw other jeeps make their way to the air base. After a couple of minutes they arrived. There was at least 500 Texan soldiers, all in formation and ready to fight.

A Texan soldier handed Commander Jett a rifle (M4). "Thank you, Lieutenant," Commander Jett said. Five huge warplanes were ready to fly, capable of carrying at least 100 soldiers each, all on the runway. In each warplane was carrying an M1 Abrams tank.

"Alright men, you know the drill, get your parachutes, Lieutenant Ajax hand Joel a parachute" Lieutenant Ajax is an African-American, but had the same equipment as every Assault variant soldier does.

"Yes sir," Lieutenant Ajax said.

Ajax handed a parachute to Joel, the rest of the Texan soldiers grabbed a parachute themselves.

"What about Ellie?" Joel asked.

"We're running out of parachutes, sir, our soldiers need all they can get, here these parachute belts will have to do, that girl would be able to attach this clip to yours" Ajax had as he held a clip in his hand.

Joel placed his parachute belt and the parachute itself. The belt wrapped around the whole body, around his waist allowed the clip to be attached. Ellie attach the belt around her body, a rope with a clip attached to it was located at the waist. It would allow the belt to be attached to Joel's.

"Everyone!" Commander Jett began, "We'll be air dropped above Jackson, and Baker Company [Baker Company was 5 plane squad made up of A-10 Thunderbolts or Warthogs] will escort us Jackson. Now everyone in your assigned planes! Joel and Ellie, you're coming on my plane! Let's go!"

All the soldiers got into their assigned planes, Ellie and Joel followed Commander Jett into his plane. And in a matter of minutes they took off to Jackson to reinforce the Jackson Texan Army Encampment.


	15. Chapter 15

TOMMY: CHAPTER 15: The 10th Legion

"I remember when I was a Firefly, I was a legionary." Tommy began. "When we fought we won. I saw most of bravest men and women die, but the blood of legionaries, death. We stood our ground, we never gave up."

"Unlike FEDRA, they couldn't guess where we came from. The hunters stood no chance against the mighty 10th Legion. We were under the command of Alex Johnson, yet I despised him. I left, I got tired of following pointless orders, it seemed like we got further away from finding a cure."

It was the day before the attack. In the middle was a fire, surrounded by logs, with Austin 2 sitting on them, and Tommy telling them a story. It was a chilly night.

"Sir, you where apart of the 10th Legion?" Allen asked.

"Yes I was" Tommy said. "We have much to do, the communications link is almost complete, and the barracks is finished." Tommy said.

"Sir, whatever happened to that bandit that we arrested the other day?" Captain Pineda asked.

"He told us the reason why the group of bandits had been around Jackson. The Fireflies have been taking territory for themselves. With the fear of the Fireflies, they left. And that's it, now go get some sleep."

Austin 2 went to the back towards the military barracks. Tommy walked in the other direction, a masked Texan Tactical soldier (it was the same one who had been Tommy's guard) was running at the General. He spoke in a deep voice. "Sir! The recon squads located an encampment of Fireflies about 3 miles southwest of our positon," the soldier said.

"What? Fortify Jackson, evacuate the people the dam. And get the engineers to work double time." Tommy ordered.

"Yes Sir!" the soldier said and ran the direction he came from.

Weapons were taken from the barracks and given to soldier. Many former militiamen wanted to help defend their town; but Tommy told them to get to the dam, for safety reasons. They quickly understood. Machine guns were mounted on the towers near the wall. Some were even mounted house balconies.

In under an hour majority of the Jackson was evacuated to the dam. The town's people met at the community center as if it were a bus station. The Humvees road over the old road, that hadn't been used for years. Soldiers stood there giving instructions to the people waiting. Maria tried to convince Tommy to stay.

"Maria, I have to stay, this time, I can't be abandoning anyone this time."

"Fine," she said, "but I don't won't to come back finding out I'm a widow."

She then gave Tommy a kiss on the cheek. Maria turned around, a masked Support soldier then explained where she needed to go "This way ma'am". The soldier closed the door.

Both Maria and Tommy looked at each other, wondering if it would be the last time they would see each other. The Humvee slowly accelerated and left the back gate.

It is a couple of minutes later, Tommy has rallied the officers at his own home. About 10 officers stood around the kitchen table, including Captain Pineda, Cruz, Allen, Mason, and that masked Tactical soldier that people have been seeing. It turns out that the masked Tactical was a Lieutenant. It was found after many saw the Lieutenant insignia on his left shoulder.

Captain Pineda was the highest ranking officer of the 10. A map of Jackson was placed on the table, labeled with defense perimeters and notices.

"We're going to assume they brought APCs and Humvees. So Mason give your guys some RPGs. We're going to need them." Tommy said pointing to gate of Jackson on the map.

"What if they break through?" Mason asked.

"We shouldn't be asking that question, Mason, but we got to be prepared, just in case. If they do, you haul ass and find some cover and defend your position. We'll send reinforcements to assist. Listen People! The 10th Legion won't stop, until they get what they want." Tommy said.

"What do they want?" an officer blurted out.

"They want the immune."

A huge argument began because of what Tommy said. Mainly because Ellie isn't even here. "She ain't even here" one said.

"Can't we work something out, instead of starting a war over it?!" another officer said.

"They won't just…" Tommy tried to say, but the argument devoured his words, so no one could hear him.

"Sir, you were a Firefly can't you work something out?" Captain Pineda asked.

Tommy became frustrated from the arguments that the officers were having with each other. It was only a matter of time for him to tick. He finally slammed the table with his fist. "Enough!" Tommy began, "I can't resolve anything with them, and I know their general. He will think I'm lying! He'll probably kill me on sight! Now all we can do is defend. For the Republic that now stands. Texas would want us to defend."

"We can't let this end like the Alamo! This will be the second Battle of the Alamo. This will be our redemption. So I need you to listen and fall in line" Tommy said finally finishing his mini speech.

This speech inspired everyone in that room. Every officer saluted their general. "For the Republic." Captain Pineda said, in a matter of seconds the rest of the officers repeated that phrase.

"For the Republic!"

Tommy respected what they did, "At ease" he said.

"Let's get back to the plan" he said. Tommy got closer to the map, and everyone leaned in to get a better look. "Alright, Alpha squad will make sure the back entrance isn't located by the Fireflies, Austin 2 I need you to patrol the area…"

It is an hour later, still expecting the Fireflies to attack. It seemed that they were ready. With no civilians to interfere, the fight could go on without worrying about them. Tommy had changed into combat gear. Now he looks a little like a Texan soldier without a helmet though.

He's still in his house with some guards outside waiting for the fight. Tommy went upstairs looking for his rifle, not the hunting rifle, his scoped semi-auto rifle (M14 with semi range scope) used when he was a Firefly.

He went to his bed, above the bed was a family picture (of Joel, Sarah, and himself). He lifted the photo frame. Under was a fake wall that could be slid to the right. Tommy revealed the wall, he slid it to the right. There stood his rifle. He grabbed the stock of the rifle. A memory flooded back.

Tommy stood behind cover with a boonie hat, with his rifle in his hand. He could remember the gunfire everywhere. He remembered that they were fighting for the Dubois QZ.

"MEDIC!" a Firefly Legionary yelled, he was attempting CPR on a wounded Firefly.

Not only did the stench of gunfire fill the air, along with it death.

The fight for the QZ would be tough. FEDRA had their hands on some mortars, and they used them to their advantage. They had been blind firing them, but unlucky for Tommy one mortar would land right behind him. BOOM!

The explosion brought him back to reality, when he came back his rifle was already in his hands.

 _Enough of this._ He thought. He soon left his house and off he went to give orders. He walked around to make everything was going well, but it was hard to see with the darkness everywhere, sure they had some lights in houses, and some lamppost, but not even that was enough to light up the whole town.

Gunfire was heard from the gate. Tommy just stood there wondering maybe someone just pulled the trigger on accident. Nope that wasn't the case, because right after more gunfire was heard. He could hear the machine guns on the towers firing.

"Fireflies!" a soldier yelled from the gate. Soldiers ran past Tommy to reinforce the gate.

"The 10th Legion" he said with a terrified voice.


	16. Chapter 16

CAPTAIN PINEDA: Chapter 16: Siege of Jackson

At first the Fireflies had a difficult time trying to break through. It wasn't until the Legion realized that they had lost 50 legionaries already. They had enough. They sent in their APC. The APC would ram the gate.

"It's almost through!" A Support soldier yelled. Soldiers were waiting for the Fireflies. A Support soldier had been on a Heavy Machine Gun at the center. With sandbags around it. There was at least 16 Texan soldiers ready, including Pineda's squad.

Captain Pineda had been behind cover, next to him was that masked Tactical Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was carrying an RPG, at the moment he was aiming at the gate. All you heard was the gunfire from the towers. Like it would have done anything. The bullets just bounced off the APC.

Then one of the towers exploded. The top part had been blasted with some kind of explosive.

"Captain, do they have RPGs?" Walker asked.

"Sounds like it, but hopefully not" Captain Pineda said.

It seemed like there wasn't any survivors, there was only one body found of the two. He had been on the floor. With a missing arm, and leg. Even more roasted than when someone would roast someone in class or something.

One of the Assault soldiers went to check his pulse, and unsurprisingly was announced dead. "Fuck! Roberts is dead," the soldier said.

THUN THUN. The ramming had grown louder. The masked Tactical, picked up his RPG.

BSSH. The gate had opened like a tin can. Right after, the APC only made couple of feet and then was shot by an RPG on its right tracks. Immobilizing it. BOOM! The sound the blast made.

"Vehicle Immobilized!" the masked Lieutenant said.

"But that thing can still shoot!" Cruz said.

Right after they cannon of the APC moved and fired. It didn't hit anyone. It made a hole in a house behind them.

"Shit!" a soldier said.

Legionaries emerged from the back of the APC. This time they carried riot shields. One hand carried a pistol and the other for the shield.

The soldiers got behind cover. The legionaries advanced. However the machine gunner on the MG wouldn't let them. THUN THUN THUN the machine gun went. The riot shields did a good job of repealing the bullets but it seemed that they shields were close to breaking. Then a Firefly came from behind the immobilized APC. He was carrying an RPG. He couched and then fired. BAM! The rocket was launched.

It would hit the MG. Chucks of the soldier's body went everywhere.

"Holy fuck!" Mason went.

A soldier then focused his rifle towards the Firefly. One bullet is all that it took. A spray of blood was released from the Firefly's head. Dropping his launcher after death.

The masked Tactical finally realized that he could take out the APC. He got up from where he was and fired! BAM! Hitting the APC. Blowing it up. Legionaries surrounding it fell forward. Some didn't get up. As the wounded legionaries struggle to get up, they were put down.

It was pretty obvious that the Fireflies were pissed from the losses they have taken so far. The soldiers knew that having the APC there would just mean a hole breach. Legionaries of all kind ran through the smoke. As they tried to get cover it seemed like some tripped, but they were just shot.

They were finally able find cover. Some got lucky. A legionary ended up shooting an Assault soldier in in the chest.

"Ahh!" The soldier went as he had his hand on his chest, fell on his knees and fell back.

"Man down!" a soldier shouted.

Mason who was put in charge of this defense line was questioning what to do. Behind cover people knew what he was thinking.

"Fuck it! Fall Back!" Mason ordered.

The soldiers got up from where they were and followed Mason. The soldiers kept moving back and trying to get cover behind houses and buildings. Captain Pineda kept trying to suppress fire.

Mason who is now behind the same building as Captain Pineda then radioed Tommy.

"General this is Mason! They've broken through. Request immediate reinforcements!"

"Copy that! Sending in a Humvee and 15+ soldiers." Tommy said through the radio.

The soldiers then entered the house and went upstairs. With the road on in the middle the Fireflies kept pushing forward. Houses were on the side of the road. Three soldiers were at the widows of a nearby house.

One soldier happened to be a Support variant. He mounted his bipod and fired away. The Fireflies started paying attention to the houses. Now the Fireflies had a harder time. The soldiers at the house were able to take out 5 fireflies. Then the soldiers heard something familiar, it was a sound of another APC. The soldiers in the house soon were dealt with.

The APC aimed its cannon at the house and fired. All the soldiers who were in the house were killed. Some of the house had been blown off. The house had smoke and small fire coming out of the hole.

"How are we going to hold our position, Captain?" Allen asked.

"Not sure, Sargent, but we need to hold them off until reinforcements arrive." Captain Pineda said.

"That APC isn't stopping!" the masked Lieutenant said.

"Lieutenant make that last rocket count!" Captain Pineda said.

He grabbed his RPG, couched, took a deep breath and fired. BAM! The rocket went under the cannon blowing it off and killing the drivers. The APC was no more.

"Where are the other Tacticals when you need them?" the masked Lieutenant laughed.

The legionaries seemed to be a little weakened. The reinforcements finally arrived. The gunner on the Humvee kept gunning them down. They tried to run away but were shot.

The General himself made a surprising appearance. "Hold you fire!" There was one legionary still running and trying to escape death. "He's mine."

He aimed down his sights, took a deep breath and fired the M14. THUN. Right through the legionary's helmet, after the shot through the head the legionary feel forward.

"No mercy for the Legion" Tommy said, which had been the Legion's motto when he was a Firefly.

Some soldiers had been wounded during the fighting. The fresh soldiers helped treat their wounds.

"Thanks for the help, General." Captain Pineda said.

"They still control the gate. They'll be coming, this isn't even the tip of the spear."

"So you're saying they'll be back?" Captain Pineda questioned.

"Yes, Captain, I've contacted Austin. Reinforcements will be on the way. We just have to hold them off until they arrive." Tommy said.

After that talk, the sun had finally decided to rise. This gave Tommy the right opportunity for a speech. He put one knee on a sandbag.

"Men!" Every soldier stopped for a second. "This is only the beginning, we must hold them off until the 3rd Battalion arrives. Many of you have lost many of your brothers and maybe even sisters. But what we do here… will be heard. We will be written down in history. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go down in history. We must do this, for the Republic. Whatever you do, don't give up, soldiers. Fortify your positions, you're staying here. Recommend you keep watches. That is why I have brought some of the Recon soldiers [who had been right behind him carrying either snipers or M14s]. Don't give up! For the Republic!"


	17. Chapter 17

JOEL: CHAPTER 17: Don't Look Down

Being on the plane seemed to be better than on the helicopter. Joel sat on the right seats in the cargo bay. With the even the tank and crates of ammo and supplies in the middle there was still plenty of space.

To Joel's right was Ellie passed out, and to the left was Commander Jett himself. Some of the soldiers had decided to get some sleep, others were talking to others next to each other.

"Joel"

"Huh?" Joel had been thinking about Jackson's future and that voice had brought him back to the real world.

It was Commander Jett.

"When we get air dropped down there, make sure you have Ellie clipped on to you."

"Got it" Joel said.

"Here you might need this" Commander Jett pulled out a M9 pistol, he held it by the barrel. He then held it by the pistol grip. Check if it had ammo and pulled back the slide. After he placed the weapon in its safety mode. He then handed him the pistol, grabbed another clip from his vest and handed it to him. "Just in case."

"Thanks" Joel thanked the Commander. Joel then placed the pistol in his back pocket. Grabbed the clip strapped it along the left strap of his backpack.

"Recommend you get some sleep, we have about 5 hours to go"

Joel then put his head back and followed the Commander's advice. It took less than 5 minutes for him to pass out.

Joel woke up on the ground, he look into a hole with a puddle of water in it. He saw his reflection, and it was his old young self. He looked back up and saw a soldier pointing the rifle directly at him. He then saw Sarah behind him on the floor, bleeding out. He soon realized he was back at Austin, under bridge where the shit hit the fan.

Tommy came from the left but the soldier smacked him with the stock of the rifle. He fell down. After noticing that Tommy had a gun, he didn't hesitate to shoot. THUN. Shot right through the head.

"NO!" Joel yelled.

The masked soldier walked towards him. All of a sudden adrenalin had kicked in. Everything slowed down. Joel then had the opportunity to look at his shoulder. He noticed the badge that represented the Texan National Guard. The adrenalin then wore off. The soldier then fire. The loud sound of the shot woke him up.

Everyone had been awake. The light had been turned on. Vibrations were felt from the outside of the plane.

"You guys, it was you." Joel said

"What did they do?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing, stay back!" Joel yelled.

Commander Jett who had been standing and looking at him. "Calm down Joel. We are about to be air dropped."

"Two minutes until drop zone!" the large speaker said.

The ramp of the plane started soon lowering. The two tank drivers who just looked like Assault soldiers with different helmets. Climbed onto the tank. Opened the hatch and one by one entered the tank. The supplies were dropped first.

The soldiers who were ready to drop walked up to the Commander.

"What's going on, Commander?" one of the soldiers asked.

Their Commander soon replied, "I think he's either having trust issues or scared of heights."

One of the soldiers laughed but tried not to show it.

"Drop tank!" the speaker said.

The tank soon moved forward and fell. With parachutes on the top of the cannon and on the back and front.

"How do you air drop a tank?" Ellie asked

"Well, have the strongest parachutes attached to it, and we got from a movie" Commander Jett answered.

"Wow, cool" Ellie said.

Joel still was paranoid about everything, including Sarah's death.

"You did it" Joel said.

One of the soldiers, who now had a puzzled face, standing next to Commander Jett, then asked, "We what?"

After that dialogue a hole breached on the left side of the plane. BOOM! PSSHHH the wind made as air filled the plane. Many soldiers flew through the hole breach. One of the soldiers who was a Support variant tried holding on, but an Assault soldier hit him and fell to the outside world.

"Ahh!" a soldier yelled as he flew out of the plane.

Commander Jett tried to hold on to railing but soon lost grip and joined the other soldiers.

"Ah fuck!" Commander Jett yelled as his voice died down with the wind.

Joel was also holding onto railing along with Ellie. "Ellie hold on!"

"I'm trying, but I'm losing grip!" she said.

She then loss grip. She fell back as the wind pulled her back into the hole. In a matter of seconds, she was gone.

"Ellie!" Joel yelled. He then let go of the railing, Joel had forgot to clip her on. She fell with no parachute. Joel soon went through the hole.

There was some kind of battle going on in the air and on the ground. The warplane seemed like it was going to crash north of Jackson. Joel saw A-10 Thunderbolts move around the sky, trying to protect the remaining planes.

Joel noticed WWII planes trying to attack the warplanes and the A-10 Thunderbolts trying to fight the old planes. He saw one of the Thunderbolts chasing down the now burning WWII plane. Joel noticed that some of the soldiers had deployed their parachutes. He noticed that the other planes were barely deploying their 100 troops.

Joel then noticed Ellie about 20 feet below. Joel then dived to try and reach her faster. As he got closer he opened his arms. He seemed like he tackled her as they got moved closer to the ground.

"Ellie attach the clip on my belt" Joel ordered.

Ellie did what she was told, and in a matter of seconds Joel deployed his parachute. He was holding on to Ellie to make her feel safe.

"Don't let go" she said with a tear in her eye. Joel held on to her and didn't want to let go.

"Don't look down," he said. As Joel himself looked down he saw Jackson in somewhat ruins, it seemed that at least half of the town had been destroyed. He noticed APCs rolling down the roads. As he saw friendly Texan soldiers land, the fighting had truly began.


	18. Chapter 18

JOEL: CHAPTER 18: Rough Landing

Joel had just landed on the ground. He took off his parachute and placed his backpack behind him. Ellie unclicked the belt from the chute. Joel then took out the M9 given to him by Commander Jett.

He and Ellie got behind a house. Joel noticed two Fireflies, one carrying an M16A4, the other carrying an M4 carbine. One was standing up, the other was couched searching a dead Texan soldier's body.

"Hurry up, we have to get back to the main assault. More soldiers just dropped." The standing Firefly said.

"Shut up, we are legionaries, there shouldn't be no rush," The couched Firefly said.

Joel then shot both of the Fireflies in the head. Both of the Fireflies fell back. Joel ran to the now dead bodies. He then found a hand-radio on the dead Texan soldier's vest. He picked it up and found the right frequency.

"This is Austin 2-1! Request immediate reinforcements!" the radio said.

"This is Commander Jett, my battalion is spread out throughout Jackson. It's going to take some time in order to reach you." Commander Jett said through the radio.

"Nice to hear from you Commander,"

"You too, Captain, now let's get back in the fight." Commander Jett said.

The transmission ended. Joel placed the radio in his pack.

Joel then found a nearby house that had been near the road. He broke into it.

There had been three Fireflies inside. One wounded on a table. Another applying pressure towards the wound on the Firefly. The other was just watching.

"Hey!" the one watching said.

Joel shot one in the neck the other in the head, the one shot in the head fell back. The other had his hands on his bleeding neck, fell to his knees and fell forward. Joel walked up and threw a shiv on the wounded Firefly's chest.

"Ahh!" the Firefly moaned.

"Dam Joel" Ellie said.

He kept moving and encountered multiple Fireflies, about five.

"Ellie stay behind me" Joel said.

"Hey over there!" a Firefly said.

Joel got behind of what was an APC. He manage to get the angle on one of the Fireflies. BAM! He shot his weapon. The bullet bounced off the helmet however. He then fired again. CLICK! He soon realized that the clip was empty.

He grabbed the clip from his strap, removed the empty clip and placed in the fresh one. However a Firefly got to him before he could reload the weapon completely. The legionary smack Joel with the stock of his M14 rifle.

The pistol was too far for his reach. Another Firefly came from the other side.

"Hands in the air!" the Firefly told Ellie from behind carrying a pistol.

Ellie did what she was told. The other three legionaries arrived. One of them had a legionnaire hat and the other two had riot helmets, one with the visor over his face. The one with the riot visor over his face then put his hand on his ear.

"This is Firefly Captain"

"Go on Captain" the voice scared Joel, as he knew it was Alex Johnson.

"We have a red-head, about teenage" the Firefly Captain said.

A low sound of suppressed weapons were fired. All shots were so accurate. Each hitting their target in the head. All the legionaries fell down with a gushing red head.

"Clear!" a Recon soldier said as he came out a house followed by a Tactical. Two Assaults were on the top of the house. They climbed down the house with ropes.

"Captain!" the radio said, "Are you there? Stay there!"

"Well, we got to go, in here," the Recon soldier said.

The four soldiers followed by Joel, and Ellie, entered the house. There was a table with map the of Jackson. The soldiers and Joel surrounded the table, Ellie just sat down on a couch.

"What happened here?" Joel asked.

"What happened!? Was that…" the Recon soldier was cut off by the Tactical.

"Easy sergeant, I'll handle it," he put his hand on the Recon's chest and push him back.

"Yes, sir" the Recon then turned around and went with the other two soldiers.

"Joel, I believe we have met before" the Tactical said.

"We have?" Joel said.

"I was that soldier that accompanied General Tommy, I was right next to Captain Pineda."

"That was you? What happened to your gas mask?"

"I took it off, anyway. Let me introduce myself, Lieutenant Mendieta," he shook Joel's hand.

"Okay, everyone around the table," the Lieutenant ordered. The soldiers, Joel, and Ellie surrounded the table.

Lieutenant Mendieta pointed at the eastern part of the map. "We got pushed back all the way to the community center. However we still hold the barracks and the communication uplink center. Because they are close to the community center."

"How come you guys are all the way out here?" Ellie asked.

"Well, General Tommy sent us around this area, as a… what would you call it… kind of like an outpost. The General wanted us to be his eyes and ears. By the looks of it, the Fireflies seem like they are going to make one final assault. With the 3rd Battalion recently deployed, it seems that we may be able to turn the tide." Lieutenant Mendieta informed.

"Lieutenant, how can we contact… 'General' Tommy?'" Joel asked, as he waved his hand up and down.

"We may be able to, but… there is a problem…" the Lieutenant seemed too embarrassed to say.

"What's the problem?" Joel asked.

"The soldier who was carrying the radio that is connected to the communication uplink, where the General is now, the soldier went MIA."

"We saw a dead soldier earlier, I pick up his radio, is this it?" Joel pulled out the radio from his backpack.

Lieutenant Mendieta saw the mark on the hand radio near the speaker, a CU (communication uplink).

"That's the radio!" one of the soldiers said.

"Let me see that," the Lieutenant said reaching out his arm.

Joel handed him the radio. Lieutenant Mendieta tuned it to the right frequency. Moved it half a foot from his face, and pressed the button that enables the Lieutenant to speak in the hand-radio. "General," he began, "this is Lieutenant Mendieta, do you copy?"

"Lieutenant, thought you and your men were dead." Tommy replied.

"Sir, Joel and the immune have been airdropped and are with me at this moment."

"Lieutenant, bring anything important at your station, anything else burn or scrap it," the General ordered.

"Yes sir," he pressed the mute button on the radio and placed it on his vest, "you heard the man, get scraping"

The soldiers started placing some of the maps into their backpacks. One of the Assault soldiers disassembled a nail bomb and placed the materials into his backpack.

"We ready?" the Lieutenant asked.

"Yes sir!" the Recon said.

Lieutenant Mendieta opened the door. "Brown, take point."

Brown, who happened to be the Recon, stepped forward and walked out the door.

"I'll stay back with Joel and the immune." Lieutenant Mendieta stated.

Brown made a 180 with his M14 and then announced, "Clear."

They moved up and held their guard as they made their way near the communication uplink. They saw multiple Texan soldiers move forward.

"Where you heading?" Brown asked.

They were a handful of soldiers they kept moving, but one of them turned around and stop, still carrying his rifle he then explained what was going on.

"General Tommy wants us to push forward due to the fact that the 3rd Battalion is here. Get to Tommy! He'll tell you your role in all this." The soldier then turned around and sprinted to catch up with fellow soldiers.

They reached the communication uplink. There was way more soldiers than expected implying that majority of the 3rd Battalion had rallied up. Joel found Tommy talking to Captain Pineda and a soldier with an orange helmet.

The soldier turned around, it was Commander Jett. Tommy walked and talked with Commander Jett as Captain Pineda stayed back with his squad.

"Joel," Tommy began, he walked closer to him, followed by Commander Jett. "Can't believe you survived that crash, plane left a huge wreck on the north part of Jackson."

"Yeah I guess you can say it was a 'rough landing'" Joel told his brother.

"Sir," Lieutenant Mendieta began, "what are we going to do?"

"Lieutenant, you'll be heading out with Austin 2, when I give the word."

"Yes sir"

Lieutenant Mendieta and his men went with Austin 2 and awaited the General's word.

"Joel," Tommy said to catch his attention, "grab a rifle and a vest, need you to help be a part of the push forward. Ellie can stay at the community center for now."

"Yeah I'll get it done, oh Commander, your pistol." Joel pulled out the pistol and handed it to the Commander.

"Oh thanks, almost forgot about it." Commander Jett said.

After he handed the pistol to the Commander he all of a sudden had a short burst head ache. Joel put his hands around his head and moaned in pain. Soon after the head ache he heard a voice.

 _They did it… Don't trust them!_ The voice said.

The Commander and General noticed him in somewhat pain.

"Are you okay?" Commander Jett asked.

"I'm fine" Joel told the Commander.

"You sure, Joel?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, yeah, hand me a rifle. It's time to kill some Fireflies."


	19. Chapter 19

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 19: Down the Middle

It didn't take long for Tommy to give the order to retake Jackson. The Legion was weaken. It no longer had the skies. The A-10 Thunderbolts were able to take out all of the Legion's aircraft. Baker Company could no longer provide air support, they ran out of fuel. They later found themselves in an abandon airport not far from Jackson.

Tommy would use the tanks as artillery support, so they would stay at the community center. The soldiers went down five roads. Captain Pineda's squad was ordered to lead the front. They were in the middle road.

"Men," Tommy began saying on a speaker, "I know that you're tired, but we cannot let all that loss go done in vain. Push forward, retake Jackson. I know that you will not let me down. Good luck out there."

"Alright," the Captain began, "let's go."

His squad went to their assigned lane. Captain Pineda turned around and saw Joel not being able to keep up. Joel had one hand on his head and the other on the rifle. "Can you keep up, Joel?" the Captain asked.

"I should be fine." Joel told the Captain.

The road they were assigned to, wasn't opened spaced. Plenty of cover for the soldiers. Cover included rusted cars, houses, Legion planes, and wrecked APCs.

The whole Company of about 100 soldiers made their way down the road. It was quiet, too quiet. A legionary popped out of a second story window. He carried an RPG.

"RPG!" a soldier yelled. It was too late. The legionary fired the launcher. A handful of soldiers went flying.

"Got a man down over here!" an Assault soldier yelled.

Legionaries popped out of the windows, came out of their cover behind the wrecked APCs, and even out of houses.

Captain Pineda found cover and shot a legionary at a window. The legionaries threw smoke. All the soldiers stood there waiting for the legionaries to pop out. Lieutenant Cruz pulled out his machete.

"Ahhh!" legionaries yelled as they rushed at the soldiers. A handful of soldiers were caught off guard. The legionaries carried bayonets attached to their rifles. Charging towards them, the bayonets penetrated the soldiers' vests.

The legionaries' charge were as if a tackle. The soldiers that were bayoneted fell towards the floor and yelled in pain. The legionaries pulled out the bayonets and tried to fight. Majority of the chargers were shot after they penetrated their fellow soldiers.

A legionary charged towards Cruz, he reacted quickly and stabbed him in the chest with his machete. The legionary drew his final breath. The legionary fell on his knees. Cruz kept one hand on the machete and the other on the legionary's helmet. Cruz pulled out the machete. The legionary fell to his left.

Lieutenant Mendieta saw another legionary charging towards him, he smacked him with stock of his rifle and tackled the son of a bitch. From there he grabbed his knife and placed it in the legionary's throat.

The legionaries gave up the charge and started engaging on the soldiers. A soldier behind cover, got up and yelled, "For the Republic!" the soldier signaled his fellow soldiers to move up.

"Ah!" the soldier yelled as his helmet was shot off. He fell and a nearby soldier check if he was fine. Soldiers from that line got up. They ran towards the enemy, sprayed and ran.

"Let's go!" a soldier running said.

About 20 of the front line soldiers ran. "Ahh!" a soldier yelled as he was shot and hit the floor. Another two hit the floor. A legionary had a good time taking out the soldiers. One of the legionaries had just finished taking out a soldier rushing at him. He quickly turned towards his right, but was flank by a soldier carrying a machete. The soldier swung the machete and hit the legionary in the neck.

The legionary fell. The soldier grabbed his rifle and continued firing. Soldiers behind this particular soldier began to push foward. The legionary defense had been broken.

A soldier had made his way toward a whole platoon of legionaries. However this particular soldier was a Heavy Trooper. Heavy Troopers are soldiers that carry heavy machine guns, such as a minigun. The soldier looked like a Support. However he carried a huge ammo bag behind him. He had a riot visor over his face, and extra armor plating on his chest.

"Make way for the heavy!" the heavy trooper said as began spinning up his minigun. Firing as many bullets as possible. The platoon didn't have a chance. Blood was everywhere. They all fell. Allen admired the heavy trooper. "HAHA!" the heavy trooper laughed. However he was too cocky, he was shot right through his helmet. He fell back and hit the floor.

"The heavy is down!" a soldier yelled.

"Move up!" a soldier yelled. It was Commander Jett.

Captain Pineda noticed him. He got near him behind cover. "Still want to lead the front I see, Commander."

"You got that right, Captain." The Commander said as he cocked his rifle. "Let's do this." He moved out of cover, Captain Pineda joined him.

However Allen had got his hands on a new toy. It was the minigun. Before the Captain and the Commander could even aim down their sights there wasn't any more legionaries.

"Get some, Sarg!" a soldier blurted.

The Legion had one more opportunity to turn the tables. The soldiers had already reached the gate near the destroyed APC. Two APCs came out ready to fire. Along with some riot legionaries.

"Ah shit, don't have anymore rockets." Lieutenant Mendieta admitted.

"Everyone down!" the Commander ordered.

The soldiers did as they were told. As they began to receive fire the Commander pulled out a radio. "Foxtrot 1 to Foxtrot 2-2, requesting some support, over?"

"Commander, what are your coordinates?" asked Foxtrot 2-2.

"Whisky Tango Foxtrot Niner."

"Copy that, firing for affect. Danger Close."

A huge air cracking sound filled the air. The soldiers behind cover turned their heads toward three tank shells. The look on the legionaries' eyes was if he had just saw their mom's die all of sudden. The shells hit the APCs. The APCs exploded and the surrounding legionaries went flying forward.

The soldiers behind cover, mantled over the cover. The aimed at the legionaries before they could get up, some were just dead. Soldiers came from both the right and left side. Those soldiers were from the other companies. The legionaries had no choice but to surrender.

The soldiers disarmed the legionaries and threw their equipment, helmets and their weapons into individual piles. There was about 15, now arrested legionaries. The soldiers handcuffed them and told them to turn around and look at the wall. About five soldiers stood guard near the legionaries.

"We did it Captain, we won."

Captain Pineda turned around and look at the Commander. "Won what, Commander?"

"The battle, it's a Texan victory," Commander Jett stated.

"Commander, what just happened here, is an act of war."

"The Fireflies aren't strong, last I checked their leader is dead, and there is probably a power struggle in the Firefly government."

"Commander, I have been in Jackson for a while, I heard what has been going on, the Fireflies aren't a republic anymore, and they have been expanding their territory. This 'Firefly Empire' must be stopped. I am in no doubt that the Texan Congress will declare war on the Fireflies."

"We'll see, Captain," Commander Jett said as he walked away from Captain Pineda and went to General Tommy. Tommy had just arrived to congratulate the soldiers on the success on retaking Jackson.

Tommy congratulated each soldier. The soldiers celebrated their victory. From a distant you could hear the dragging of a pole. Soldiers were dragging the pole all the way to the gate. Some soldiers made a hole for the pole. The put in the 20 foot pole in the hole. The pole was a flag pole. The raised the Texan flag in honor of the victory.

Surrounding soldiers saluted the flag as it was being raised.

There was movement near the wreckage of the APC. Joel was the only one to notice it. He walked closer to it. A metal plate was lifted up and was pushed aside. It was a legionary. He was in a prone stance, weaken. The glass of his riot visor was broken.

He had lots of blood on his face, the legionary finally spoke.

"Joel, it's me," the legionary began, "I was the first Firefly you saw when you opened your eyes."

The legionary was familiar. It was the legionary who was there when he woke up.

This legionary had not just been there, he interrogated him, tortured him, and did things that Joel didn't know possible. Joel cocked the rifle.

"That's right," the legionary said, "kill me, but remember, don't trust them." The legionary smiled at Joel. Joel dropped his gun. A surrounding soldier grabbed the proned legionary and put him with the rest. Captain Pineda noticed his odd behavior. Brown, the Recon, walked up to him.

"Joel, you okay?" Brown asked.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Joel yelled and punched the soldier. Joel found a rock and smashed it on Brown's nose. The soldier fell. Brown didn't have his rifle to shoot Joel.

"Get him!" Lieutenant Mendieta ordered. He pointed at Joel and ran at him. Surrounding soldiers surrounded Joel.

"Come get me!" Joel yelled.

About five soldiers surrounded Joel. They all rushed him. Joel moved so that two of the soldiers would run into each other.

"Ah!" a soldier yelled as he punched Joel in the face. Joel punched the soldier, grabbed his arm and broke it. "Ahh!" the soldier yelled. He pushed the soldier onto the floor. A soldier got behind Joel and grabbed him. Lieutenant Mendieta punched him in the face multiple times. He even uppercutted his ass, and he still wasn't knocked out.

Joel struggled and was still filled with energy. Anderson pulled out the morphine from his backpack and injected it into Joel's neck. Joel calmed down and passed out. Two soldiers next to Joel grabbed him and dragged him to the county jail.

"Anderson," Lieutenant Mendieta began, "pretty sure you're a medic, need you to check if Brown is okay. Let's not forget the other one with a broken arm."

"Yes, sir, I am a medic. Will get it done." Anderson said.

Captain Pineda walked up to Anderson. "That's going to be hard to fix." He told the soldier with a broken arm.

"Ah, dam, it still stings. That guy, sure can fight, broke my fucken arm, don't know when I'll be able to get back in the fight."

"I say about 6 months." Captain Pineda told the soldier.

"Sounds like a long time." The soldier said.

Anderson finished up with Brown, it was nothing major for Brown. Just a cut down his nose. All Anderson had to do was stitch his cut back together.

"Well, this one is going to be harder. Come with me." Anderson offered his hand towards the soldier. The soldier used his non-broken arm to grab Anderson hand. "Let's go, we are going somewhere with the materials I need to fix your arm. Let's try that house." Anderson pointed to a nearby house.

"You got it doc." The soldier told Anderson. The two walked into a house in order to fix the soldiers arm.

"Captain!"

Captain Pineda turned around. It was Commander Jett.

"Do want to head towards Jackson Hole Airport?"

"Why? What's going on Commander?"

"Well Baker Company ran out of fuel and landed there, along with the other planes. They had just recently contacted me, they're running out of ammo and are in need of reinforcements."

"Why? What's going on, why do they need reinforcements?"

"Well, General Tommy has just informed me that the airport is crawling with inflected. So now I am going to take a platoon of soldiers to help the pilots fight off the inflected. What do you say? Just like odd time's sake, let's not forget your Lieutenant, Cruz. "

"I'm in" the Captain said. The platoon soon prepared to leave Jackson and head to Jackson Hole Airport.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: I am liking the support I am starting to receive. Thank you! And hopefully it continues to grow!

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 20: That Girl You Used to Know

The platoon of soldiers began to prepare to leave towards the airport. The clouds began to darken and it soon was raining. If that wasn't bad enough, the sun had begun to set.

Thanks to the 10th Legion, they had left a perfect condition troop transport truck. It was capable of carrying 10 people in the back. But before they could use the transport truck, they had to get rid of the Firefly logos. They tried painting over it, but the rain just washed it off.

The soldiers gave up, they just got on and started the truck. The Humvees would be used as well to get to the airport. Before Captain Pineda got on with Cruz, his squad approached him.

"Sir, are you sure you won't need us?" asked Walker.

"I'm sure, Walker." Captain Pineda replied.

"But…"

"We'll be fine, Walker. Go get some sleep."

Commander Jett noticed that Captain Pineda had been holding them up. He walked up to the Captain to question why he hadn't gotten in the truck yet.

"We ready or what, Captain?" the Commander asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Captain Pineda said as he grabbed on to some railing and lifted himself onto the truck.

Allen walked up to the Commander with his new toy. "Hey, Commander, check this out." Allen said spinning up the minigun.

"Would be useful for this assault on the airport. However you need training with that." Commander Jett stated.

"Yeah, I know Commander, where can I get some heavy trooper training?" Allen asked.

"Meet me next Monday, and we'll discuss that."

"Yes, sir."

The rest of the squad went to the barracks to hit the hay. Captain Pineda, now inside the truck, noticed PFC. Medina. Medina was still in his flame trooper suit. Medina just nodded back at him and said, "Sup, Captain."

Every soldier in there just had the stock of their rifle on the ground and starred at it. After 20 minutes, the Commander notified them that they were 10 minutes out. Captain Pineda removed glasses, placed them in his case, and placed the case in his backpack. After removing his glasses he removed his helmet, grabbed his gas mask and placed it on his face. After placing the mask over his face, he placed his helmet back on.

The rest of the soldiers did the same, it was just military protocol. With most of the soldiers having to remove their helmet to put on their mask, Cruz didn't. All Cruz did was flip his hat back and placed on his mask. Cruz and a Tactical in the truck, just laughed with the mask on their faces.

The truck made a sudden stop, the soldiers in the truck moved to side due to the instant stop. Every radio on the soldiers' vest went off. It was Commander Jett, "Go! Go! Go!"

The soldiers rushed out of the truck. Captain Pineda jumped out and landed on his legs. He instantly noticed a horde of infected. On the runway of the airport were the A-10s and the transport planes. One of the planes had its ramp lowered, with the lights on. Next to the ramp was a small camp site.

The camp site had a tent over supply crates, which were now empty. With the rain pounding hard on them, and with the sky already darken, it would be an interesting fight against the infected. The gunners on the Humvees began firing their turrets. Infected started going down within seconds. The soldiers then began to unleash their firepower.

"Take them out!" a soldier yelled.

Captain Pineda and Lieutenant Cruz met at the camp site with Commander Jett. Commander Jett was searching through the supplies, nothing, everything was either too wet to be used, or was gone.

"Dam, they really did need supplies," the Commander admitted.

"Sir, where are the pilots?" Cruz asked.

"I'm not sure, we need to search."

"No need to."

The three turned around to find the pilots waking down the ramp, there was 13 of them. The one in the middle was the Captain of Baker Company, he carried two M9 pistols. Three of the pilots had a M4 on their hands, the other pilots either had just one M9 pistol, or had nothing.

"Captain," Commander Jett began, "You guys are alive."

"Wish I could say all of us made it." The Captain said.

"What do you mean?" the Commander asked.

"Don't you remember? Your plane crashed, the two pilots went down along with it."

"That's right. Anyway, this is Captain Pineda," Commander Jett pointed towards him, "and this is Lieutenant Cruz." Commander Jett pointed at Cruz. Cruz waved his hand towards the Captain.

"Nice to meet you two," the Captain shook both Captain Pineda's hand and Cruz's hand. "Captain Jones, at your service." Jones bowed at the two.

"Captain watched out!" a soldier yelled. A runner had made its way towards Captain Pineda. Jones ran towards it and placed a pistol beneath its jaw and pulled the trigger. Parts of the runner's head had been blown off.

"Thanks." Captain Pineda told Jones.

"Maybe now isn't the best time to introduce ourselves," Jones said.

"Agreed."

"For the Republic!" Captain Jones said running off to join the fight against the infected.

"Ready, Cruz?" Captain Pineda asked.

Cruz nodded his head at the Captain and pulled out his shotgun. The two ran and started blasting their weapons. Captain Pineda crouched, in order to control the recoil of his weapon.

A runner went down as it ran at the Captain. Captain Pineda began to fire on the infected runners. One… then two… now three. CLICK. Captain Pineda didn't like sound of that. The runner had his eyes locked on Captain Pineda. Captain Pineda pulled out his pistol, but before he could turn the safety off, the runner was shot multiple times and seemed like it tripped.

"I got you Captain!" Captain Pineda turned around to find it was Commander Jett. "You know you can't have all the fun." Commander Jett said with his mask on. Commander Jett ran towards Captain Pineda's position to get in on his share.

Captain Pineda put his pistol back, and grabbed his rifle. He removed the empty clip and placed it into a strap on his vest. Then grabbed a fresh one and placed it in the rifle.

"Keep it up boys!" Commander Jett yelled. "They're almost done for!"

Then PFC. Medina moved up, he burned every single infected in his path. "Get roasted!" Medina laughed. Captain Pineda turned around to find a soldier with a mask that was familiar to him. The soldier looked like a Tactical to the Captain.

He then knew that this soldier was a woman. She was still firing her rifle. The mask had the words _Danny boy_ carved into it. Captain Pineda looked away and kept taking down infected.

The infected got closer to the female soldier, Captain Pineda tried to deal with his share of infected, however there was too many. The female soldier fired until her gun jammed. A runner took the opportunity, and ran at her. The runner tackled her the ground. She kept trying to push away the runner from biting her.

It was obvious she didn't have the strength to push away the runner. She then yelled. "Help!" she said through her mask. Commander Jett answered the call before Captain Pineda. Commander Jett shot the rifle. One bullet. Hitting the runner in the head. The runner fell onto of the female soldier.

She now had blood over her mask and on her vest. She pushed away the now dead runner. She got up, wiped the blood off her mask and turned towards the Commander. "Thanks Commander!" she thanked.

"Anytime Fernandez!" Commander Jett replied.

Now Captain Pineda knew who this soldier was. He had figured it out, her last name, the mask, and her voice, all gave it away. He was now filled with somewhat rage for Fernandez.

Captain Pineda turned towards one of the pilots, he pointed at the one sitting on a chair under the tent. "Pilot!"

"Yes, sir?" the pilot got up from his chair.

"Take my place."

The pilot ran towards Captain Pineda, Captain Pineda threw his rifle at him. The pilot went towards where the other soldiers had been.

He then turned towards Fernandez. "Fernandez! With me, and bring your rifle!" Captain Pineda ordered. Captain Pineda then made his way towards the plane with the lowered ramp. He walked up the ramp and sat on one of the seats on the sides.

He looked up and Fernandez await him. "Yes sir," she responded.

"Let me see your rifle." Captain told the soldier.

She handed him the rifle. He grabbed it, and inspected it. He found the problem and why the rifle had jammed. A cartridge had been stuck in the rifle's port cover. The Captain pulled out the cartridge and cocked the rifle and handed it her.

She took the rifle and asked the Captain a question. "Is that all, sir?" she said.

"No, I taught I told you not to join the army." Captain Pineda then removed his helmet to remove his mask.

She stood silent.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"You told me not talk to you." Fernandez said with fear.

"You still didn't respond to what I told you earlier."

"Look, Edward I don't-"

"It's Captain to you!"

"Then why do still lead a squad then!" she turned around.

"I could lead a company of soldiers if I wanted to, but instead I decided to be a part of a special operations unit."

Fernandez kept her head down, with her arms now crossed. She turned around in front of the Captain. She had tears in her eyes.

"Look, Katya, I didn't mean to make you cry," he said now feeling bad.

"You just left me there. After what happened to Daniel. You just left me there," Katya said weakly.

"I didn't want to believe that he actually… With that mask on, you can't wipe your tears," Captain Pineda said intending to show some humor.

"Stop it!" she said with laughter.

"Get back to your platoon, they'll need you."

Fernandez turned around walk down the ramp, she turned around one more time to take a look at Captain Pineda and then ran to rejoin the fight.

Captain Pineda placed his mask back on along with his helmet. He walked down the ramp find Commander Jett sitting on a chair under the tent. "What's going on Captain?" he asked.

"Nothing much, how about you?"

"Well as you can see, we have dealt with the infected on the runway," Commander Jett got up and showed the Captain the dead infected that littered the runway.

The soldiers now stood guard now some near the tent, others making a perimeter around the tent and vehicles.

"Hey," the Commander began, "want to help us clear out the building? We need to find a way to refuel the planes."

"As much as it was fun to deal with this group of infected. I have to decline to your offer. It's a lot more risky, and I've been fueled only by energy bars."

"Ah, I see Captain, I see that you're tired."

"Yes sir, been awake for at least for a couple of days."

"Well, Captain, I'll be sending back the truck and the Humvees, you can take a ride back with Cruz. I've contacted one of my companies, A Company will be sending B platoon over."

"Alright later Commander," the Captain turned around, "Cruz let's go!" Cruz was with the other soldiers, just there, next to one of the soldiers was Fernandez. Now both Captain Pineda and Fernandez just starred at each other for a while.

"What you looking at, Captain?" Cruz asked.

Captain Pineda stopped starring and just looked down. "Nothing Cruz."

"You ready to go, Captain?" Cruz asked.

"Yeah-" before Captain Pineda could finish a clap of thunder filled the sky. Captain Pineda and Cruz then headed for the troop transport truck.

The truck's engine woke up from its nap. The two just sat in the seats. After the truck moved for a bit, Captain Pineda decided to remove his mask. He hooked the mask back on his leg. Then grabbed a case from his backpack. Opening the case, he pulled out his glasses and placed them over his eyes.

"Captain," a voiced called. Captain Pineda look back at Cruz, who now had removed his mask. "Who were you starring at? Was it her?"

"Well, yeah," he said in a low voice.

"I see, do you remember that day?"

"Yeah, I remember, still hurts to think about it though."

"That's the day we first met."

"I know Cruz, can we not talk about this now."

The truck made a sudden stop, "This is your stop," the driver said.

The two got out of the truck, the platoon had been waiting. The platoon made their way into the Humvees and into the truck.

"Let's go people!" the platoon's Lieutenant yelled.

Cruz and the Captain just past him without any trouble. The two began to make their way towards the barracks. They walked on the wet roads to get to the barracks. Along the way they saw wrecked APCs, Humvees, and ever the giant transport plane.

After a couple of minutes they made it to the barracks. Captain Pineda opened the door to find his squad mates still awake. His squad had their own section in the barracks.

"Why are you guys still awake?" asked Captain Pineda

"Well," Allen began, "we've been waiting for you."

"Why?" the Captain asked.

"We wanted to know what happened," Baker blurted out.

"So did anything happen, Captain?" Walker asked.

Cruz began to speak for his Captain, "Well, he meet someone from his past, and he is now going through something."

"Who is this someone?" Allen asked.

"I tell you about it later." Captain Pineda said.

"Come on Captain." Walker complained.

"Fine! It was about 10 years ago, maybe even more. I had just been a year since I enlisted. I was a Sargent First Class, about to be promoted to Master Sargent…"

A/N: The next Chapter will continue this story. But what's with the "Firefly Empire?" What has happened to Joel? Will Texas declare war on the Fireflies? Stay tuned to find out in the later chapters of, The Last of Us: Texas Rising!


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: This chapter will be told in first person since Captain Pineda will be telling the story from his prospective. Since the trailer for The Last of Us Part II was released, I am more likely to post new chapters. My goal will be at least one chapter a week, hopefully I can get it done.

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 21: That Girl You Used to Know (continued)

As I said before, I was a Sargent First Class at the time. I was a lot younger, I didn't even have my beard yet. Only recently had I been transferred into a different squad in the same 3rd Battalion. Jett wasn't the commander of the battalion at the time, he was only a lieutenant. The commander of the battalion was none other than Commander Foxtrot. Sadly he is no longer with us.

It was just a chill day, we decided to take a "vacation" in Oklahoma City, outside of the Republic, and so it really wouldn't be safe to go.

I met my new squad mate and driver at the Panhandle of Texas. That day I wore just my uniform, uniform hat, a ballistic vest, and a pair of knee pads. I made my way to the border wall that separated the Republic and the rest of the world. I had my hand on my pistol holster. I walked up to the Humvee with a man inside it. I got closer, it was a soldier. He had his feet on the steering wheel and his uniform hat covering his face. I let go of the holster when I realized who it was in the Humvee.

"I'm guessing you're Sargent Cruz?" I asked the soldier.

The soldier put his feet on the ground of the Humvee, and placed his hands on the steering wheel and looked at me.

"I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again." Cruz said.

"You bet your ass it won't," I said.

The MP troops that were supposed to be guarding the wall, were only half available than usual (the MP soldiers were majority made up of Assaults, they had parts of their helmets painted red, along with red knee, and elbow pads. The MPs and the letters "MP" on their vest).

It was an early morning. ["Explains why Cruz was asleep," Allen interrupted. "Shut up Allen!" Cruz yelled at him. "Can I continue?" Captain Pineda asked. Both were now silent.]

I opened the door to the Humvee, and enter the vehicle. I waited there for about half an hour. Then a bus arrived. The bus made a sudden stop and screech. The doors opened and two people walked out of the bus. One was a young man with glasses, this young man was… ["You alright Captain?" Allen asked. Captain Pineda was silent for a second as memories flooded his head. "Yeah, I am," Captain Pineda replied, "now let me continue."] Daniel. The other was a young woman, named Katya.

I opened the door on the Humvee to greet the two. "Hey guys!" I said as I shook Daniel's hand and hugged Katya.

"Sup Edward?" Daniel replied, "Where we heading again?"

"Well if you read the letter, we are going to Oklahoma City." I reminded. "Follow me."

I headed towards the Humvee and got in my seat, both Daniel and Katya went in the back. "Alright Cruz, drive us to the checkpoint," I ordered.

"Yes sir." Cruz replied.

Cruz didn't drive us far, since the checkpoint was basically part of the border wall. He drove into the checkpoint. Once the soldier noticed the Humvee, he raised the barriers to stop the car.

"Identification please," the MP soldier asked me.

I pulled out my ID from my pocket and handed it to the soldier.

The soldier took it and inspected it, he even scanned it in a computer. He then handed it back, along with an assault rifle, an M4.

I looked at him and asked "What's up with the rifle?"

"New regulation Sarg. Anyway do all of you guys have gas masks?"

"All dam!" Katya blurted out, "I left mine at home."

Daniel turned towards Katya and handed her his mask. "You can use mine."

She grabbed the mask and placed it over her head. The MP soldier went in his box and came out with a mask in his hand. He tossed it at Daniel. Daniel caught the mask and hung it under his shirt.

"Safe travels Sarg," the MP said as he raised the barriers.

Once the barriers were raised Cruz shifted from park to drive. Cruz now passed the border. We saw some MP soldiers patrolling the wall. But the further we got from Texas, ruins of civilizations became more common.

As we approached the now ruined city, Katya questioned how it had gotten this way. "During the U.S. Shock and Awe Campaign…" I began, "the U.S. Air Force bombed surrounding areas to the QZs. It worked to slow the infection, however it didn't matter much since the OKC QZ fell a decade back."

"The destruction looks modern though," she asked.

"Oh, well we play a role in this destruction as well. Every month or so, the Army decides to use OKC as a firing range. Using its long range artillery to rain hell on any infected still occupying the area. In addition, it has helped clear a path for anyone making their way to Texas. And it's worked. Sometimes innocent survivors are caught in the crossfire, sadly. On the plus side, it has prevented attacks by clans of hunters."

"Oh, wish they didn't have to waste their artillery on a dead city."

"Yeah you got a point," I admitted, "but I'm not in charge of the Texan borders."

"Huh."

For the rest of the ride we were quiet until we reached OKC. We made it to the city limits. I informed Cruz to stop the Humvee. He did as he was ordered. Now we were on a freeway, with parts of it was falling apart.

I got off along with the others, Cruz began to get off the Humvee.

"Cruz," I began as he turned at me awaiting orders, "need you to stay, you have your hand radio right?"

"Yes sir," he said as he pulled it out, and placed it back on his vest. Then sat back down in the Humvee.

"Alright the rest of you, let's go."

"Sir!"

I turned to find Cruz carrying a rifle in his hand.

"Your rifle!" he said as he put his arm out with the rifle.

"Thanks," I said as I grabbed the rifle.

I remember crossing the freeway as if it were yesterday, sadly, only three of us would return to Texas.

Not so long later we were in the city. Buildings in ruin, old military tanks from the QZ rusted, blown apart, or both.

I got tired of carrying the rifle, so I used the strap to let it hang from my neck. With the rifle in front of me, I would be ready for anything.

"Anything new going on?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Well I've aided lots of your soldiers," Daniel stated. "Remember I treated you a long time ago."

"Really? That was you?" I said as I stopped to point at him.

"Yeah."

"Nah." I denied. The day would go on as we explored the ruined city. We then made our way to a mall. It was one of the buildings that was still intact. This building would be our ultimate downfall.

We were talking about the old times we had back in the QZ, nothing important. We were at the center of the mall, then things started to go wrong.

We were walking down some old, powerless escalators that lead to the food court. Then we saw one. A runner in a hibernated state.

We all stood silent. We didn't move a muscle. I pulled out my pistol, and handed it to Katya. The way I acted said enough. She knew what to do, he aimed down her sight and took the shot. Right through the head of the runner.

"Nice shot!" I commented.

This one shot, would alerted the others. I then realized what I just did. We should have just retreated, but no, I thought we could handle it.

Infected came running, clickers, runners, stalkers, and a handful of bloaters. We knew what was going on, these infected came to eat.

I flicked the safety to semi-auto on the rifle. The M4 may have an auto function, but I only had one clip. Opening fire the rifle the first couple went down. Two shots on an average, is all it took. As the infected made their way up the stairs of the escalators, we retreated back up.

Soon I was out of ammo, I threw the rifle at a clicker climbing up the escalators, the clicker just screech at us. I then pulled out a spare pistol I had. Shot two shots, and then turned towards Katya and Daniel.

"We got to go!" I told them.

They nodded their heads and we began to run.

As we ran I made the call. I pulled out an emergency hand-radio that connected to the border artillery. I clicked the button that enabled me to give requests.

"This is Austin 2-1!" I yelled.

We kept running down the hallways near the stores, only to find more infected. We had to changed directions in order to avoid them.

"Austin 2-1, what's your problem?"

"My problem is that we are being chased by infected! Now, I know that your artillery firing isn't scheduled until next week, but I need it now!"

"Uhh… I don't know if I can fill in your request…standby."

"Aww for fuck sakes!" I yelled as we continued dodging and shooting infected.

"Austin 2-1, I just got the go ahead to begin firing on your position. Where exactly are you at OKC?"

"Penn Square Mall!" I yelled in the radio.

"Copy that, standby. Firing! Danger Close. Hope you get out Austin 2-1! See you back over here!"

The transmission ceased. Only a couple seconds later, we could see parts of the mall's roof fall. The artillery wiped out infected behind us.

"Yeah!" Katya yelled with happiness.

A smile popped in my face as I saw the infected go down. Daniel was still looking at the dead infected. We were in between a hallway in the top floor, I remember. He was too distracted on the dead infected, he didn't focus on his feet. Daniel then tripped and fell.

We stopped and turned back, artillery then hit the roof above us. This caused parts of the roof to separate us, me and Katya on one side. Daniel on the other.

"Daniel! You alright!" I yelled.

"I don't think so Edward, my leg, I can't feel it." Daniel replied and then moaned in pain. "Some of the debris fell on my leg, Ah!"

"Don't worry, we are going to get you out of there!"

I and Katya began to try digging up the debris. After five minutes of digging, it didn't seem like we were getting closer to getting Daniel out.

"There is no point," Daniel began, "the artillery is still firing. If you guys keep trying to get me out, you'll end up joining me. Aw shit infected! You guys got to go, I'll buy you time with this frag."

"Frag? Where did you get that?" I asked.

"When we passed a gun shop, a dead soldier had it clipped on his vest. Enough! Go!" I could hear the infected getting closer to him. Then I heard him pull the pin on the frag. "Go!"

Both me and Katya turned around and began to run once more. Seconds later hearing an explosion behind us, I only wish it were the artillery.

As we continued running down the endless hallway, someone began to speak through the radio.

"Austin 2-1," it began, "due to the fact that there are too many friendlies. All shelling as ceased."

"What?" We stopped and pulled the radio out, "what do you mean stopped!" there was no response. "Fuck! Let's go." I grabbed Katya's hand as we soon began to run again.

I then pulled out my hand radio that connected with Cruz's.

"Cruz!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Start the car, and head over to Penn Square Mall!"

"Uh, there is a problem with that request sir."

"What request? This is an order!" I yelled into the radio.

"I'm already in bound sir," he said with a bit of nerve.

"In bound or in route? There is a difference!"

I then stopped as I noticed infected in front of us, behind them a missing corner of the mall. The infected began to surround us. I raised my pistol, ready to make a last stand. Right before I could pull the trigger the infected in front of us flew forward due to an explosion.

Five Texan soldiers came swinging in the building. Kicking and shooting infected in front of them. Of the five soldiers, two were Tacticals carrying shotguns.

"Go! Go! Go!" one of the soldier yelled as he landed on his feet.

The squad of soldiers pushed forward and were now behind us. More soldiers swung right then and there. About another three more deployments of soldiers would occurr.

"Take them out!" I remembered a soldier yelling.

The last rotation of soldiers contained soldiers I was familiar with. These soldiers were Cruz, Lieutenant Jett, and Corporal (at the time) Ajax.

The three soldiers I recognized walked up to me. Two of them looked at me, and Ajax just stood guard checking if the infected would get any closer.

"You owe us both," Jett began, "big time."

"I don't understand, how did you find us?" I asked.

"Well, after Cruz informed me that you called in the artillery, I knew it wouldn't be enough. Foxtrot is pissed to let you know. He could have deployed the whole battalion to OKC if he wanted. He made saving your ass, 'volunteer work'. So of course the other platoons didn't give a fuck about you. And… you're assigned to my platoon, so you're kind of my responsibility."

"Huh." I said as I took it all in.

"Either way you owe me." Jett said as he made a gesture with his arms.

"You're not bad Cruz, thanks for having my ass." I said as I looked over at Cruz.

"Wasn't there three of you?" Cruz said as he pointed at me and Katya.

I then realized that Daniel was dead, and it was all my fault for calling in the artillery, I then told myself that it wasn't my fault. Because I didn't pull the trigger that alerted the infected.

I looked down for a second and then picked my head up, "The other, he was-"

"Bloater!" a soldier yelled interrupting me.

The soldiers were now retreating a little back.

"Stand your ground men!" Jett yelled. He turned towards me and Cruz and Katya. "You guys got to go, down the ropes!" He turned around and pointed at the ropes that the soldiers enter in.

I nodded back at my superior and ran towards the ropes. I placed my hands on the rope and turned back at Jett. "What about you!?"

"Don't worry about me! My men will be heading towards the roof for evac!" He then turned back towards his men and joined them for the battle with the bloater. Turning back one more time as he had his rifle pointing at the infected, "Go!" he said for the last time.

"Edward!"

I turned to my right to find Katya in fear.

"Just hold on tight and let gravity do the rest."

I then turned towards Cruz who was to my left. "Just like training."

He nodded back me and looked at his rope that was going to get him to safety.

I then put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. He turned to see an expression of gratitude on my face. "I really appreciate what you did back there." I said thanking Cruz.

He just nodded back at me again. I just turned at him again, "Listen, you saved my ass," I said pointing at him, "Don't need you bragging about this though, now let's get this over with."

We then slid down the ropes and landed on our feet. I then looked at my right to see if Katya was still alright. She was still sliding down the rope, about five feet from the ground. At least she would end up touching the ground.

"This is why you shouldn't be in the army." I joked after she reached the ground.

She gave me a smile. That joke was something she needed after all we've been through in one day.

We were silent all the way until we reached the Humvee. Cruz got into the driver's seat and started Humvee. After taking a nap, the Humvee was now awake.

I looked at Cruz and then gave him the order. "Get us back to the Republic."

"Couldn't agree more Sarg." Cruz turned the car in the direction to Texas and began to accelerate.

For most of the ride, no one said a word. It wasn't until we were at least 10 miles away from Texas until Katya said something.

"Poor Danny, he didn't deserve this." Katya said as she rubbed the words on the mask.

"You still have his mask." I then began to build up grief and converted it to anger. "It's all your fault!"

"My fault!" she said putting her hands on her chest.

"You pulled the trigger!"

"You gave me the pistol!"

"You could have warned me about the amount of infected!"

"You basically signaled me!"

"Stop the car!"

A huge screech resulted in this instant stop.

"Get out." I said.

"But…" She began.

"I've had enough of this, you can walk the rest of the way back to Texas. Go! Don't want to see your face again."

She then got out of the Humvee and closed the door. "I can't believe you're doing this," she began break down, "I'm going to get you!" she was now crying with a bit of rage. "I'm going to kick your ass the next time I see you."

"Yeah I bet you will." I said with sarcasm. I then turned from looking at her to looking at Cruz. "Cruz, drive."

"But we can't just leave her here." Cruz said trying to change my mind.

"We're about only 10 miles away, probably less."

"I still don't think-"

"That's an order Cruz."

"Yes sir." Cruz said as he gave up trying to change my mind.

I then took one more glance at Katya. She was bawling it out. Her hands on her face, weeping. From then on she became, "that girl you used to know."

[The point of view will now change from first person, to the usual third person.]

The soldiers were now at the barracks taking in the whole story. Captain Pineda was kind of ashamed of himself. He began to remove his helmet just to scratch his head.

"So," Allen began, "Cruz saved your ass."

"Yup." Captain Pineda admitted.

Allen then turned his attention to Cruz, "Then how come Cruz never mentions it?"

"Two reasons, Allen. One, Cruz doesn't boast as you do. Two-"

"I don't boast-"

"Shut the fuck up and let me finish! Two…" Captain Pineda caught a breath, "I told him to keep his mouth shut after we made it back to Texas."

"I guess Captain." Allen admitted. "But this story makes you sound like a dick to women."

"I know…" Captain Pineda was looking down for a second and then realized that Anderson was not present for the story. He then lifted his head up. "Damn it! Anderson isn't here, if you see him. Tell him the story if he request to know, otherwise don't tell him."

"Yes sir." Allen said saluting the Captain.

"Anyway, we've been through a lot in the past couple of days. I believe we've earned the sleep we deserve. Get to sleep men. That's an order."


	22. Chapter 22

TOMMY: CHAPTER 22: The Missing Platoon

It was the day after the Battle for Jackson. It was now official, soldiers outnumbered the people of Jackson. It was all thanks to the 3rd Battalion. No orders had been given so that the battalion may return. The planes of the battalion were now refueled and are awaiting the order, if it would ever come.

Some are now speculating that Texas will make Jackson Hole Airport an FOB against the Fireflies. No one is sure though. The airport is now claimed to be cleared of infected. All of this would make sense to make an FOB. No soldiers have been moved to the airport, yet the platoons sent yesterday remain there.

During the Battle for Jackson, one platoon was reported completely missing. The platoon was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, not the Jackson Encampment. Now lots of stress rest on both Commander Jett, and Tommy.

"Where could they have gone?" Tommy asked Jett.

"Not sure. One thing is certain though, it was Ajax's platoon. General," Jett looked at Tommy right in the eye. "We should check the communication uplink center, to see if any recordings of Ajax's platoon are present."

"Let's go then." Tommy agreed to Jett's idea. Both headed for the uplink center.

"Surround the center." Jett informed a platoon of soldiers through a hand-radio.

"Yes sir," the platoon's lieutenant said. "Commander, we are position."

"Good on my command, Lieutenant."

"On you sir."

Tommy looked over at Jett.

"Is this all necessary?" Tommy asked.

"General, we must secure the uplink center. Can't have anyone trying to hide anything."

"I guess that makes sense, Jett."

The two were standing right outside one of the uplink center's doors. Jett carrying his rifle, was now ready to give the order.

"Make sure not to kill anyone, Commander."

"Don't worry, General, I've done this sort of thing multiple times." Commander Jett gave Tommy a reassuring look and went back to looking at the door. He pulled out the hand-radio from his vest and gave the order, "Breach!"

Jett kicked opened the door followed by Tommy. They entered the center only to find two friendlies in there. The two soldiers turned around to see both the General and the Commander. The soldiers put their hands up with even one of them saying, "Friendly sir."

The platoon's lieutenant came from the other door with two other soldiers.

"Sir, the rest of my platoon is outside," the lieutenant said pointing his thumb to the door.

"That will be all, Mendieta." Tommy informed.

Commander Jett looked at the lieutenant for a second.

"Lieutenant, you're welcomed to join us; however, your troops have to wait outside."

"I understand," Mendieta turned back at his two escorts, "Brown, Gonzales, leave us, seal the door and join the others."

Baker nodded his head at the lieutenant and signaled Gonzales that they had to go. Both kind of jogged out, and sealed the door.

"Now we can get on to more oppressing matters." Jett stated. Jett then pointed to the two soldiers working at the center. "You two look through the transmission history." Jett said as he pointed to the soldiers in the chairs.

"Yes sir," one of the soldiers said as he started looking through the transmission history through a computer.

"Care tell to give me a briefing Commander?" Lieutenant Mendieta asked.

Commander Jett turned around to look at Lieutenant Mendieta. "Well Lieutenant…" Jett began, "during that battle yesterday, Ajax's platoon went missing."

"Oh," the Lieutenant said beginning to feel bad for his fellow lieutenant, "I hope he is not in the hands of the Fireflies, even death is better than being held by the Fireflies."

"I doubt that Lieutenant."

The five began to go through the transmissions.

"Sir! It's the 3rd Battalion! Reinforcements at last!" one of the transmissions said.

"Forward the transmissions." Jett ordered.

"Yes sir," the soldier said as he began to forward the transmission.

"This is Lieutenant Ajax! Requesting reinforcements, we are being surrounded!"

"Forward it a bit more."

"…lay down your weapons. They're too many of them."

"So…" Tommy began, "the platoon surrendered?"

"Make sense," Mendieta began, "they weren't accounted from the dead."

"Sir!" it was one of the soldiers in the chairs, the soldier turned around to look at the officers. "We're getting a live transmission!"

"Have you tracked where it came from?"

"Unknown," the second soldier in one of the chairs began, "We're tracking now."

"Place it on the screen!" the Commander ordered.

"Yes sir," the first soldier said as he clicked a button on the keyboard to place the transmission on screen.

"Johnson!" Tommy yelled.

Alex Johnson was now on screen, by the looks of it, he was in the parking lot at the hospital. With a legionary standing behind him, standing guard.

"Greetings. We have Jett, a deserter, two soldiers, and a lieutenant, by the looks of insignia on your shoulder."

Mendieta took a quick glance of his shoulder and then turned back at Johnson.

Jett then got involved, "Have some respect for the General."

"General? Didn't know they made deserters generals, Tommy."

Tommy then look back at Johnson to answer his insult. "I left your legion because I was tired for fighting for a loss cause."

"Whatever Tommy. Anyway to let you know, my bureaucratic leaders have agreed to consider your actions as an act of war."

"Now…" Tommy began, "how does invading a town where Texan soldiers are based, an act of war?"

"Your soldiers were involved by interfering in Imperial Affairs. It is clearly stated in our constitution." Johnson grabbed a long piece of paper, at least three feet long. "…if a nation gets involved in Imperial Affairs, then we are required to take it as an act of war."

Tommy then looked at Jett, "Do you guys have a constitution?"

"Back at Austin." Jett replied.

"Anyway Johnson, what do you want?"

"Oh I just wanted to let you know of this act of war. And… I have your missing platoon."

"What?!" Jett yelled.

"Yes, right here." Johnson turned the camera at the platoon of about 12 soldiers. One of the soldiers was Ajax. The soldiers had been removed of their equipment. The soldiers were on their knees with their hands tied behind their back. Some of the soldiers bruised. "Got anything to say Ajax." Johnson said as he lifted Ajax's gin towards the camera. Ajax was bruised, with a couple of his cuts tried up, some still flowing.

"Commander…" Ajax began, "I didn't want to risk my whole platoon. I did it for my men. I hope-"

"That's enough!" Johnson yelled as threw a punch to knock out Ajax. Ajax's head was now just looking at the floor, looking lifeless.

"No!" Jett yelled.

Tommy then needed to try something with Johnson. "Maybe we can do some kind of prisoner exchange. I mean we have a platoon amount of Fireflies, which we captured."

"Nah, keep them. Serves them right for surrendering. No Mercy for the Legion." Johnson then pulled out a .44 magnum from his holster and began to point it at Ajax. The conscious, captive soldiers then look at the revolver as if they were staring at death.

"Don't do it Johnson." Jett begged.

Johnson then moved the magnum from pointing at Ajax to the nearby legionary standing guard next him. He then pulled the trigger. Hitting the legionary in the chest and then falling back.

"You see, I don't kill prisoners of loss causes. That legionary…" he looked back at legionary he just shot, "he ordered the retreat. No Mercy for the Legion."

"You have a twisted mind!" Tommy yelled at Johnson.

"I don't, I just have a different way of thinking Tommy. There is a difference. We are now at war with your 'Republic.' If Texas gets in the way of me getting the vaccine, so be it! No Mercy for the Legion." From there the transmission ceased.

Lieutenant Mendieta who had said nothing throughout the entire transmission now looked at both Tommy and Commander Jett, who were still staring at the screen. "What the hell was that?"

Commander Jett then gave Mendieta an expression of sadness. "I am afraid it was a declaration of war."

"Sir!" one of the soldiers in the chair interrupted, "we have their location."

"Where!?" Jett asked.

"Salt Lake City, Utah."

"Damn it!" Tommy said, "That's way too deep in Firefly territory."

"Any rescue mission will have to be halted until this coming war progresses." Jett admitted.

Soldier then barged in through the door Mendieta entered in. The soldier paid his attention to Tommy. "Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Doctor Cole informed me to contact you once Joel had awoken."

"Joel is awake?" Tommy asked.

"Yes sir, and Doctor Cole wishes to speak to you. He says its urgent sir."

Tommy looked and pointed at the soldiers as he began to walk out. "Save that recording and send it to Austin."

A/N: Looks like I have made it to the deadline. Anyway…what exactly is wrong with Joel? Will the Fireflies attack again? Will Texas send reinforcements to Jackson, or will they take another approached towards the Firefly Empire? Where is Ellie? Find out next chapter of The Last of Us: Texas Rising.


	23. Chapter 23

JOEL: CHAPTER 23: The Inspection

Joel had finally awoken, he looked around and found himself in the county jail. He still didn't understand why he was in jail. He turned to his left to find Fireflies stripped of their equipment, locked up.

"Joel," a voice began to say.

Joel turned around to find his cellmate. By the looks of it, he was a bandit.

"They say this is your name, Joel," the bandit continued, "I've been hearing all about you."

"Who are you?" Joel questioned.

"You should be asking, 'Why am I here,' but that still works. I am not going to disclose my name with you, since that isn't of importance at the moment."

"Okay, so why am I here?" Joel asked.

"Do you know what you did?"

"I don't remember much, what happen?"

"You attacked a soldier, resisted arrest, and broke a soldier's arm."

"I don't remember any of that."

"Well you did, and one of the soldiers had to give you morphine so you would calm down."

Joel began to take it all in. He looked around his cell and looked into other cells. He noticed that the captive Fireflies had been staring at him the whole time entire time.

Two soldiers then walked in the door to the cell room. They were carrying in food and water bottles. Both of the soldiers were talking to each to each other. They then focus on the prisoners of war.

"Alright," one of the soldiers began, "its lunchtime." That very soldier then noticed Joel, awake. The two soldiers dropped the items they were carrying.

One of the soldiers grabbed the hand-radio from his vest and leaned towards it. "Contact Dr. Cole, he is awake." The soldier said as he continued lean towards the radio, "Yes sir," the soldier said.

"What did he say?" the soldier next the other said.

"Continue feeding them, and then report back for extra equipment."

The soldier nodded at the other. They began to feed the ex-legionaries. One of the soldiers would open the cell and feed the prisoners. The other would grab his rifle and point it at the prisoners to make sure they didn't do anything. This would continue until they reached Joel's cell.

Both of the soldiers just gave each other an uninsured look. One of the soldiers whispered something in the other's ear. After he finished, the one listening nodded back at the other.

"Alright," the soldier with the plan began, "if you move, or try to attack me, this soldier," the turned at the one next to him, "will put a bullet to both of your heads."

The soldier opened the cell, the other cocked the rifle for intimidation. The soldier handed the food and water bottles to the two cellmates. Joel stared at him as he handed the items. Everyone in the county jail just stared at the shaking soldiers. Everyone knew both of the soldiers were afraid.

The soldier carrying the rifle hand been shaking the whole entire time. The rifleman then tapped on the other soldier's shoulder. The tap was a signal to the soldier that they had to go.

The soldiers closed and locked the gate of the cell. The two soldiers kept looking back at the two as they exited.

"Well that was weird." Joel admitted.

"They're afraid of you," the bandit said as the opened the package of food (the food was nothing but MREs), "nice, ramen."

The bandit was now enjoying his meal along with the water. Joel then just opened the MRE package, hydrated the food and dug in.

Joel enjoyed the simple, yet delicious food. He would use his fork to twirl up the noodles and shoved it in his mouth. After 15 minutes, he was done.

Four soldiers approached the cell now. Carrying rifle like tasers. The one leading the group of soldiers, was a Major. His helmet was unique compared to others. His helmet was a fusion of a regular helmet and a gas mask. The eye holes lit up blue while placed on the user. By the looks of the helmet, it was a prototype.

The Major removed the helmet in front of Joel, the blue lights in the helmet darkened after the removal of the helmet. "Joel," the Major began, "Dr. Cole wishes to see you, for an…" the Major looked down for a second and then began to wave his arm down low, " an inspection."

"What kind of inspection?" Joel asked as he crawled on his knees and place his hands around the bars of the cell.

"I'm sorry, but you've asked too much. As for a safety protocol, we must do what we are about to do." The Major then placed back on the helmet, with the lenses of helmet lighting up. "It for our own good." The Major said as his voice changed from a voice of a human to a robotic voice. The Major now pulled back the pump of the rifle taser. "Open it up."

Two soldiers went up to the cell door. One unlocked it, the other opened it. The Major now shot the taser at Joel. The other soldier next to the Major, fired his as well.

"Ahhh!" Joel yelled in pain.

The other two soldiers grabbed their taser rifles and fired at Joel, hitting him in the chest.

"Alright that's enough." The Major said as he shut off the transmission of electricity to the taser.

Joel fell forward with smoke coming out of his body.

"What the hell!?" the bandit yelled.

"Shut up," the Major said as he looked at the bandit and pointed the rifle at him, "or I'll taze you and leave you for dead."

The soldiers then dragged out Joel and into the clinic where Dr. Cole was at.

Joel woke up to find a soldier right in front of him. The soldier took a step back for a second. Joel then tried to move forward. He was restrained by some chains behind him. He looked away from the soldier in front of him, to find a man in a lab coat.

 _That must be Dr. Cole._ Next to Dr. Cole was the Major. His helmet had been removed and his arms.

"…that will be all Major." Dr. Cole informed.

The Major just nodded back, placed his helmet back on, and exited. As the Major exited, Tommy entered.

"Doctor," Tommy began as he shook the doctor's hand, "any progress on finding out what could have caused Joel's 'breakdown'?"

"Actually General, I've found some sort of 'drug' in Joel's bloodstream."

"Do you have the chemical formula for this 'drug'?"

"Yes I do, General." Dr. Cole pulled out a mini board and showed him the formula."

By the looks on Tommy's face, the formula was familiar to him.

"Familiar, General?" Dr. Cole asked.

"Sadly yes, this formula," he said pointing at the board, "is known by the Fireflies by 'Drug X'."

"Huh…" the Doctor said now thinking to himself.

"Johnson wanted Marlene to use this on enemy hunters, and the Military."

"And did he do it?" Cole asked.

"No, Marlene never approved of it. She was always keeping his hands tied."

"So what did this drug exactly do?"

"Well? It drove people insane by using emotional stress to fuel their rage. Joel's is different though, I think the drug was modified to make him some sort of sleeper agent."

Joel just kept listening to their conversations. To Joel, it seemed like they were talking trash. He now had to bud in.

"I thought I came here for an inspection?" Joel interrupted.

The two just turned around to an awaken Joel. Tommy said the first words to break the silence.

"Joel, from what we know, you've been drugged. You're going through emotional stress that is being caused by this drug." Tommy said looking at his confused brother.

"I don't know what you're talking about. People have told me what I've done recently. I don't remember any of that. Tommy," he know begged, "you got to believe me."

"From what I remember, those that have been drugged, don't remember what they did as they went savage."

"So you believe me?"

"Sorta, I believe the fact that you don't remember, but everyone saw what you did."

"What about Ellie?"

"She's been informed of your state. With Jackson under reconstruction and citizens returning, it was only a matter of time before she questioned your state. I'm sorry, but she questioned about the Fireflies."

"And?"

"I couldn't come clean, I'll leave that up to you. Whenever you get the chance, of course."

"Thanks."

"Joel…" Dr. Cole began, "until we clear you from this 'drug,' we can't let you go anywhere. And I do apologize for the way the soldiers handled you. It was for our safety. I promise, we'll be more lenient in the future."

"As for Jackson," Tommy began, "a company of soldiers will help in the reconstruction of this fine town. The ex-Fireflies may be subject to 'forced labor'. Speaking of Fireflies; with this coming war, Austin has requested me to recruit members into S.O.C."

"S.O.C.?" Joel questioned.

"Special Operation Commandos. The Texan Army's best."


	24. Chapter 24

ELLIE: CHAPTER 24: The Truth

Ellie was now at the Capitol Building, back at Boston. Fireflies rushed to the front of the building near the doors. She looked around in confusion.

A Firefly walked by her with his legionnaire cap covering his face. Carrying his M4 rifle, it was clear that he was in charge.

"Alright men! Prepare to hold the line!" the Firefly in charge said.

About 15 Fireflies were present. Most were behind cover. They were either behind walls, pillars, or the crates at the center. Majority of them were in the center behind the crates. A Firefly was even on the top of the balcony facing the door.

One of the Fireflies got out of cover and walked to a window to his left. He looked through the window. He then turned around towards the Firefly in the legionnaire cap.

"Johnson! Militar-" The Firefly's words were interrupted by a bullet through his neck. The bullet had broken through the glass and hit him. The Firefly held his neck as he fell on his knees.

A Firefly then began to get out from cover to aid the wounded Firefly, but was stopped by Johnson.

"Leave him!" Johnson ordered.

The Firefly followed his order and went back into cover. By this time the wounded Firefly had already been in contact with the floor, dead. Now in a pool of blood around him. The Fireflies just looked at their now dead comrade and focused on the door.

The Fireflies stood there waiting. Behind cover aiming their rifles towards the door. Most wondering, if this would be their last day on this doomed planet.

The door breached forward caused by C4 explosives. Military soldiers began to storm the building.

Most of the Fireflies in the front, flinched. This would cause their ultimate demise. The front Fireflies were gun down. About five now joined their dead comrade on the floor.

An exchange of bullets began. The soldiers that lead the breach, were now taken down. After about taking out five soldiers, the Military's troops began to overwhelm the Fireflies.

Another Firefly was hit, around the chest area. He then slowing fell.

Johnson then gave the order. "Fall back!"

The first couple of Fireflies to fall back were shot in the back. Hitting the ground and dying shortly afterwards. The remaining Fireflies rushed out from the back exit.

Ellie was now in the center of the Capitol Building. The soldiers avoided her as if she were a ghost.

The Capitol Building was now fading away. She was now pulled back and into a bed. She looked at her body to find that her clothes had changed. She was now wearing the same hospital clothes she had worn when they were supposed to get the vaccine.

She looked back up to find Marlene and the head surgeon.

"…hopefully she does end up like the last ones," the surgeon said with doubt.

"She won't." Marlene began, "I have faith in her. She will be the savior of the Republic."

Marlene then noticed Ellie laying back on the bed, looking terrified.

"There's nothing to worrying about, Ellie." She now walked closer to Ellie and toyed with her nose. "You're a part of something bigger," Marlene let go of her nose. Giving her one last smile.

Marlene all of a sudden, shot in the stomach area. She fell on her hands and knees. One hand on her wound, the other on the floor. She looked at the person who shot her. It was Joel.

Joel walked closer to Marlene to finish the job. One more bullet. Right through the head. Parts of her brain splattered on the floor.

The bed now folded in a 90 degree angle. Joel and the dead Marlene began to fade away. Ellie was now sitting down, leaning against a trench wall.

She looked up to find a dark, cloudy sky. Rain began to pour on the trench. Making the dirt mixed with blood, muddy.

She looked at the opposite trench wall, which was reinforced by wooden planks. She found Joel finishing off a Texan soldier. Biting his face right off. Ellie gave Joel a disgusted look. Ellie now walked toward her father-like figure.

Joel just gave her a disgusted look. She walked closer. A soldier then popped out. He was outside of the trench, about to swing a machete at Joel.

Ellie then realized, Joel was infected.

"Ahh!" the soldier yelled. A spear was now through the soldier's chest. The soldier's face was now visible. The soldier was none other than Captain Pineda. With a crack on his glasses, he now looked down at the spear.

The spear was then pulled out of the Captain. He fell forward and was now hanging at edge of the trench.

Ellie now began to look around the trench. Dead soldiers everywhere. Some laying on their stomach, others on their back. She then noticed Commander Jett.

His helmet gave it away. Jett was masked, with the lens cracked open. Commander Jett was leaning against the opposite trench wall with a pool of blood accompanying him.

Ellie then paid her attention to Joel. Joel just stared at Ellie. Joel began to move towards her. Before he could get to her, a bullet hit his head.

Shocked for a bit, she then crawled out of the trench. She realized, she was in Jackson. Houses around her, blacken. She then focused her eyes on the group of people in front of her.

Black legionaries stood there, about a platoon of them. The legionaries carried spears, riot shields, and others carried rifles.

The shadow legionaries began to focus on Ellie.

"What about the girl?" the legionary asked.

"We don't need her." The voice of the leading legionary, was familiar. It was Johnson.

"Yes sir." The legionary said as he walked closer to her with his M14. He was now at point blank range. He cocked the rifle and shot her.

Ellie rushed up from her bed. Breathing heavily and trying to realize, it was just a dream. She noticed that the lights were off when she woke up.

She looked at her door to find Captain Pineda standing guard, with his hands behind his back.

Captain Pineda just looked at her with an unsure look.

"Damn it, Eddie. I thought you were someone else." Ellie said breaking the silence, getting out of her bed.

Ellie got out of her bed. She was wearing a regular t-shirt and some boxers. However her shirt was covering her boxers.

"Can you pass me those pants?" Ellie asked pointing her finger at the end of her bed.

Captain Pineda grabbed the pants and handed them to her.

"You were wearing something under that shirt right?" he asked.

Ellie just lifted up her shirt to reveal her boxers. Captain Pineda looked away for a second, but then realized the boxers on her.

"Yeah I was totally masturbating before I fell asleep." Ellie said with sarcasm. "Of course I am wearing something under this shit! It's not like you haven't seen a girl naked before."

"It's not that, it's just having respect." Captain Pineda said cringing.

Ellie now slipped the pants on, pulled up the zipper, and buttoned the pants on.

"Back to the topic!" Ellie told Captain Pineda. "So you have seen a girl naked before?"

"Well of course I have. I'm like 33 years old! Why wouldn't I have?"

"Oh, I was just curious." Ellie said blushing a bit.

"Okay…"

"What time is it?" Ellie said trying to change the subject.

"About 4 am." Captain Pineda said looking at his watch.

"And you're still awake?" Ellie asked.

"Orders. Commander Jett and General Tommy had to, all of sudden, talk about stuff. They saw me walking towards my quarters, and then told me to make sure you didn't leave the house."

"Well, Eddie, it's official, your life is worse than mine." Ellie joked.

"Well… the army does have its perks."

"As much as I want to know these perks, I have more important things to ask about."

"Like…"

"Was there more immunes than just me?"

"Well Texas was isolated for quite a while, so I have no doubt. I mean they're should be more than just you. It's just probably very rare. And you were the only immune we knew of. And we didn't want to waste any resources looking for any."

"How about the Fireflies?"

"What about them?"

"Did they stop looking for a cure?"

"No, of course not."

"Why do you say that?" Ellie asked.

"Because, Project Firefly."

"Project, what?"

"Project Firefly. It was started by Marlene. We sent a group of about 20 volunteers to the outside world about 10 years ago. They were tasked with finding a cure, or any resistance against the infection."

"Do you know anything more?"

"No, sadly I don't, the rest is classified."

Ellie then started to break down. She slowly fell on her knees, and then placed her upper body on her bed.

"What did I do?" Captain Pineda questioned.

"He swore to me. He looked me in the eye and swore." Ellie said brawling it up.

Captain Pineda then walked closer to Ellie. Captain Pineda got on one knee and looked her in the eye.

"He…" Ellie said trying to catch her breath.

"Who swore to you?"

"Joel." Ellie was now curled in a ball.

"I'm sure he did it to protect you."

"After all we've been through. He just threw it all away. I knew the Fireflies attacking was too suspicious. Why else would they've come?" Ellie said throwing her hands in the air.

"Ellie, calm down," Captain Pineda began, "I'm sure he didn't do it purposely. From what I know, you're like a daughter to him."

"I'm not a little kid," Ellie said in a bit of rage, "I deserve to know the truth."

"Truth sometimes causes panic, something we don't have time for."

"I'm pretty sure, he could have told me, and I would have understood."

"What was the situation of when he told you?" Captain Pineda asked.

"Well…" Ellie said finally wiping away the tears, "we had just got back from the Fireflies, he informed me of what happened. I then asked him to swear to me once we reached Jackson."

"I'm pretty sure he did what he did, to cut loose ends."

"What do you mean 'loose ends'?"

"Well it's pretty obvious, Ellie."

"What's pretty obvious, Eddie?"

"Joel killed Marlene." Captain Pineda said coming straight forward with it.

"What?" Ellie said now leaning against her bed.

"Marlene was loyal to the Republic, she wouldn't have ordered the attack on Jackson?"

"Then who did?" Ellie asked.

"Johnson more likely."

 _That name again._

"What made you ask about this anyway?" Captain Pineda asked.

"I had a dream." Ellie admitted.

"A dream?"

"Two parts of the dream were kind of like flashbacks, relived. The third and last was different though. It could have been a potential future, but I doubt I have the power to look into the future."

"I doubt that as well." Captain Pineda joked as he got up.

"Where you going?" Ellie asked.

"Going to get myself a drink."

"Can I come?" Ellie asked.

"I mean, you can't leave the house, but they said nothing about going into the kitchen."

The two headed downstairs. But before Ellie walked downstairs, she looked at the door of Joel's room. She then focused on her thirst and headed down stairs.

The two were now downstairs, they could see through the windows, and by the looks of it, it was still dark outside. Some of the windows were covered by some blinds.

"Where do you have the cups?" Captain Pineda asked.

"In those cabinets over there." Ellie said pointing at one of the cabinets.

Captain Pineda grabbed two cups and placed them on the table. Ellie then pulled out a pitcher of water and placed on it the table. She then poured the water into the cups.

"A toast." Captain Pineda said raising the cup.

"To what?"

"To surviving the first battle of this 'vaccine war'."

"Vaccine war?" Ellie asked.

"Well that's what they're calling this coming war."

"Huh." Ellie said and afterwards just gulping down the water.

The door then opened. Commander Jett followed by Tommy entered the house and found the two drinking water on the table.

"Enjoying the water, huh?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, sir." Captain Pineda said serving Commander Jett and Tommy a glass of water.

Tommy and Jett took a gulp of the water.

"Spoils of war." Captain Pineda announced.

"Not yet," Commander Jett said looking back at the Captain. "That reminds me, you're being reenlisted into S.O.C."

"You're kidding." Captain Pineda said with disappointment.

"Tomorrow we will begin training potential candidates."

"Isn't tomorrow Monday?" Captain Pineda asked.

"Yup, so that means Allen will be getting extra training. He will become a S.O.C. heavy trooper."

Captain Pineda just stood silent for a whole two seconds.

"Met me near the communication uplink center tomorrow," he said after finishing his cup of water and slamming it on the table. "See you tomorrow." Commander Jett said walking out of the house.


	25. Chapter 25

CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 25: S.O.C.

Day One

Captain Pineda was now at his quarters. He looked through some old stuff, which he had ordered the transfer of not so long ago. He then found a picture of himself and his old S.O.C. squad.

All of the S.O.C. troopers in the squad were in the picture, including Cruz. He just stared at the picture for a whole minute before being interrupted by Cruz.

"Sup Captain?" Cruz asked closing the door behind him.

"Nothing much, how about you?" Captain Pineda asked as he placed the photo back.

"Well, I've already seen some of the candidates. With the rest of your squad included."

"Anyone else you recognized?"

"Well actually, yeah."

"Who?"

"Fernandez."

"Huh. Didn't think she would make the qualifications."

"Well she is a Corporal."

"Barely made the qualifications." Captain Pineda said with a laugh. "Anyway… Cruz, I'm going to wear it."

"Wear what…oh don't be an asshole!"

"Only Captains in S.O.C. can wear these." Captain Pineda said pulling out an orange pauldron. A pauldron was a light plate of additional armor that covered the upper chest area and completely covered the right shoulder.

"Ass!" Cruz yelled at his Captain.

"Yup I remember wearing this baby, you know before the 3rd Battalion dissolved its S.O.C. unit." Captain Pineda said putting on the pauldron.

"Don't worry Cruz; I'm sure you'll get one…one day." Captain Pineda said laughing afterwards.

The two now walked to the communication uplink center and found about 100 candidates for S.O.C. With another S.O.C. instructor, giving him or her orders. The instructor turned out to be Lieutenant Mendieta, as they got closer.

"I kept them busy, sir." Lieutenant Mendieta said saluting the Captain.

"Good, now tell them to stop doing jumping jacks." Captain Pineda said.

"Sir," Mendieta nodded as he began to turn to the candidates, "Alright listen up!"

The candidates stopped doing jumping jacks and paid their attention to the instructor.

"You're here, because you're the best of your squad, platoon, or maybe even your company." Captain Pineda said. "In the next couple of days, you will either become the best this Republic has, or will go back to your platoons to serve the frontlines. Do I make myself clear?"

"SIR! YES SIR!" the candidates complied.

"Good and it's now an honor to introduce, Commander Jett."

"Thank you, Captain." Commander Jett said walking in front of Captain Pineda. "As you may have heard, we are now at war with the Firefly Empire. As a result, the 3rd Battalion's S.O.C. unit will be reinstated."

"That's right." Tommy said walking up to Commander Jett. "You are here to become the best soldiers Texas has.

"Enough with this chit chat; it's time to get started!" Cruz said interrupting.

"We'll begin with the hike." Commander Jett said. "Soldiers will walk from Jackson to the Dam back and forth in full equipment. Due to the fact of possible infected, you will be travelling in squads. Captain Pineda will organize you in squads of five. Alright let's get started!"

Captain Pineda organized the squads. When he came to his own squad members, he had a word with Allen.

"Allen," Captain Pineda began.

"Yes sir?" Allen asked as he walked up to him.

"Since you're the highest rank out of the five, you will be in charge."

"I knew that, Captain." Allen responded.

"And, I'm assigning Fernandez to your squad."

"Will that be all?"

"Yeah, dismissed."

Now the soldiers were marching in military format out into of Jackson. Captain Pineda and Commander Jett watched them exit from a balcony.

"Do you really think at least half of them will make it to become S.O.C. troopers?" Captain Pineda asked as the soldiers stomped their left leg and turned to face the gate.

"We'll see, Captain, we'll see." The soldiers now marched out and were no longer visible.

Day Two

The soldiers marched back and forth from Jackson to the Dam all day. When they got hungry, they were allowed to camp out. Speaking of camping out. They camped and slept outside. Now, none of the soldiers gave up. Their will was strong. Day Two would be different.

Captain Pineda was now in front of about 100 soldiers.

"Yesterday, you all did well. When I became a S.O.C. trooper, about a handful of soldiers already decided to quit. You guys didn't, maybe all of you do have a chance."

The soldiers just listened with their hands behind their backs.

"Today, you will fight the person next to you." The soldiers took a quick glance to the soldier next to them. "These are the rules: no low blows, no killing, and no breaking of any bones once so ever. We have a war coming; we can't send soldiers out there with broken arms and legs, right?"

The soldiers now had a little chuckle.

"Begin!"

Captain Pineda and the S.O.C. instructors walked around as the fighting began. Captain Pineda now noticed Allen and Fernandez about to get it on; he walked a little closer, otherwise he kept his distance.

"Mama told me not to hit girls." Allen taunted with his fist up.

Fernandez now threw punch towards his face.

"OH!" Allen said flinching a little, "not bad, now it's my turn." Allen attempted to throw a sucker punch from the right, but Fernandez ducked it and threw an uppercut.

The uppercut caused Allen to loose balance for a second, only to regain it seconds later.

"Enough of this." Allen said.

Fernandez threw another, but her luck had ran out. Allen caught the punch with his arm.

"Uh…" Fernandez said with nerve. At that moment, Fernandez knew, she fucked up.

Now, Allen used his free arm to kiss her face with his fist.

The punch to her face caused her to nearly fall back. Allen took this to his advantage. One more additional punch from Allen ended it.

Fernandez now fell back and hit the ground, staring at the sky.

Allen began to walk closer to her.

Captain Pineda then stopped him. "THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Captain Pineda now caught the attention of every one. All the soldiers now stared at the one in charge.

Cruz now walked up to his Captain. "You alright?" Cruz said in a low voice.

Captain Pineda just stood there for about 30 seconds. He then noticed the sun beginning to set. "Go get some dinner! We're done for today." The soldiers now dispersed. Allen began to walk away as he was not a part of what he just did.

"Stop right there." Captain Pineda ordered.

Allen now stopped and turned around to his superior.

"Anything I may help you with?" Allen asked politely.

Captain Pineda walked closer to Allen. His mouth was now next to his ear. "The next time we do something, which will be tomorrow, you'll be the first to go. And believe me; you are not going to like me tomorrow." Captain Pineda said whispering in his ear.

Allen stood there in fear. Wondering what they were going to do tomorrow.

"Do I make myself, clear?" He said in the low voice.

"Yes sir."

"I didn't hear you."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Now march your ass outta my face."

Allen turned around, stomped his left foot and began to march to the community center where dinner was being held.

Captain Pineda now turned around to find Fernandez on the ground. He offer his hand to her.

She smacked it away from her, "I don't need your help! I can get up myself." Fernandez said with a bleeding nose. She now attempted to get up herself but struggled. "Ahh!" she yelled in pain. "Alright, lift me up."

Captain Pineda grabbed her arm and lifted her up. Now on her feet, she began to limp as she walked to the community center.

Captain Pineda just looked at her as she limped. "Stop."

Fernandez stopped.

"You might want to go check with Dr. Cole."

"I don't need-"

"Katya…"

"Fine. But I'm hungry."

"I'll send Baker to you with a plate."

"Thanks," she said limping towards the clinic.

"Cruz, escort her, and meet me in the community center once you're done."

"Yes, sir." Cruz responded.

It is about 10 minutes later. Captain Pineda is sitting at a table with his helmet removed along with his glasses. He had already informed Baker of his orders. Now sitting in an empty table while the other soldiers ate with their squad mates or candidates. He had begun to drink.

Cruz now walked up to Captain Pineda.

"What's wrong Captain?"

"I made a fool of myself. That's what's wrong, Cruz." Captain Pineda now took a gulp from the bottle.

"I think you're drinking too fast, Captain."

"I'm fine," he said burping afterwards.

"Captain, we are now at a time of war. It is illegal for a soldier to drink during wartime." Cruz stated.

"You know what…," he said waving the beer bottle at him.

Cruz just gave him an unsure look.

"That Allen… I don't know… there is something about him."

"God damn it Captain, how much of these have you drank?" Cruz said lifting up the bottle.

"One…" he burped again.

Cruz then inspected the table, looked below him and found five empty beer bottles. "I knew it," he said pointing at him, "You're fucken drunk."

"I'll be sober by tomorrow."

"You better hope you are."

"Tiffany… what have I done?" Captain Pineda said looking at the roof of the center.

"Tiffany? The fuck?" Cruz said wondering who she was.

"Edward! Snap out of it." Cruz said slapping him once.

"Edward? We're using our first name names now?"

"Lieutenant-"

Lights out, Cruz managed to knockout the Captain with one punch.

Day Three

Captain Pineda woke up in bed, hung-over and with a headache. He looked to his right to find Cruz.

"What day is this?" Captain Pineda said as if he been asleep for years.

"It's Day Three."

"Shit," Captain Pineda stated as he got out of the bed.

Only a couple of minutes later, he found himself at the Dam on top on the dam. The candidates had been in bathing suits and ready to jump into the water. _Damn. I'm still hung-over, hopefully Commander Jett doesn't notice._

"Everything alright?" Commander Jett asked.

 _Shit, he must have notice me wobble a bit._ "Nothing sir, just maybe that Allen would like to go first."

Allen now stepped up.

"You ready Allen?" Captain Pineda said as he readied himself to push Allen.

Captain Pineda now shoved Allen forward. Allen began to yell in fear.

"Ahhh!" he yelled.

However, because Captain Pineda was still hung-over, he lost balance. He had ended up having one leg on the ground and the other in the air. He now rather began to spin towards Commander Jett. Commander Jett then noticed that he was about to fall. He tried reaching for him. However, Captain Pineda threw up on him.

This final blow made him fall off the dam and into the water. Commander Jett now with vomit on his face just stood there.

"Aww…shiiiittt…" Captain Pineda said as his voice died out.

"Who wants to be a S.O.C. trooper?" Cruz asked.

"I'll do it," Fernandez said.

"Go right ahead." Cruz stated.

Fernandez now dived off the dam to save the hung-over Captain.

Captain Pineda now submerged underwater, was lifted out and placed on the platform nearest with Allen and a soldier ready to perform CPR on the Captain.

Before they could even perform CPR, Captain Pineda coughed out all the water.

"Holy shit," he began, "you saved me…after everything I've done to you."

"I mean, you did give that plate of food you promised me." Fernandez said.

"I practically left you for dead all those years ago. And now-" Captain Pineda said passing out before he could finish.

Captain Pineda was on a clinic bed. A masked soldier stood guard. He looked at his clothes to find himself stripped of gear and equipment. His helmet was removed and placed on the table next to him, along with a wet backpack, the ballistic vest, the pauldron, and his glasses placed in his case.

Captain Pineda reached and grabbed the patient chart. You took a quick scan through it.

 _Patient Name: Capt. Edward Joseph Pineda_

 _Reasons for visit: nearly drowning, intoxicated, vomiting_

 _Doctor's resolution: taking a day off_

 _External resolutions (coming from parents, employers, etc.): to be placed on probation. Late-afternoon patrol is being considered._

"Probation!" he yelled aloud.

The masked soldier just gave him a look.

The look didn't last long since Commander Jett entered.

"Sir!" the masked soldier said as he saluted the Commander.

"At ease." Commander Jett said walking in along with General Tommy.

"Captain, out of all the people…" Tommy began, "I'm at my wife's baby shower, and then I hear that you're dunk on the job!"

"I may not express it as the General does, but I am very disappointed in you." Commander Jett said with a disappointed look.

"Out of all the soldiers. I did not expect you to be the one hung-over on duty. You were the first one to enter Jackson, all those months ago." Tommy stated.

"In response for your actions you'll be placed on probation and will serve in late-afternoon patrols until further notice." Commander Jett said. "From what I hear, late-afternoon patrols suck."

"Disappointment." Tommy admitted one more.

A/N: What hole has Captain Pineda gotten himself this time? How will the next battle occur? What kind of tactics will each of these new nations use? Will we ever know Cruz's first name? Find out next time on, The Last of Us: Texas Rising!


	26. Chapter 26

TOMMY: CHAPTER 26: Trench Warfare

It is now a month later. The fighting has kicked off with a Firefly victory in the south. Now the Fireflies are desperate to keep the momentum. In order to secure this, they created lines of trenches along the southern front (the offensive against the Firefly Empire in the south). In order to counter this, Texas created their own lines of trenches.

The demand for Stormtroopers increased. Texan Stormtroopers were just like the ones from WWI. Troops trained and specialized to attack/storm trenches. Supply lines are now being stretched thin. The Republic is desperate to open up a new front against the Firefly Empire. Many are calling it the northern front.

Texas didn't want to risk sending an untrained battalion of soldiers to attack well trained Fireflies in trenches. In order to ensure the 3rd Airborne Battalion's success, they must train them.

Jackson now made trenches around the town to train the soldiers into Stormtroopers. This would be a little difficult since the 3rd Battalion is trained to be paratroopers. There were only two trench lines in Jackson. Perfect if they wanted to defend and train.

Tommy now wanted to see what the soldiers were doing. He approached the soldiers and found them shooting in the trenches.

[Play _Blackout_ ]

He had a small flashback. The soldiers changed into Fireflies. The instructors outside the trench turned into Firefly officers giving orders. Artillery began to fire on their position. Tommy looked around. The dirt blacken because of the artillery.

He looked at no man's land (the land between any two trenches). He could see the opposing soldiers firing rifles and machine guns. One of the Firefly officers began to call his name.

"Tommy…Tommy…Tommy!" his voice just faded out.

The Firefly now walked up to Tommy and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"General…" the Firefly said changing into the Major with the prototype helmet, "we're ready."

Tommy looked at the soldier with a shocked expression. "What just happened?" Tommy asked the soldier.

"Well you were heading out to see our trench attacks. Then you just froze, sir."

[Pause or wait out _Blackout_.]

"Alright show me what you got."

The two now walked over to the two trench lines in the woods. He found Commander Jett and other trench instructors outside the trench.

"General," Commander Jett began, "so glad you can join us, we were just about to start."

Jett now signaled the instructor closest to the trench to blow the whistle. The instructor blew the whistle. Seconds later the soldiers climbed out of the trenches and ran across no man's land. The soldiers ran across and shot poles with helmets on the top.

A handful of soldiers ended up shooting off the helmets. Before they made it across no man's land, Tommy saw one of the soldiers go flying upward. Going up in the air as a Texan soldier, coming down a Firefly.

Jackson slowing began to turn into the Dubois QZ.

As the Fireflies made it made it to the other trench, melee combat began to take place. The FEDRA soldiers desperate to keep their position, threw chlorine gas to counter this.

Unlike the legionaries of the legion, the soldiers of FEDRA had their masked equipped when the fighting started.

"GASS! GAS! GAS!" a legionary yelled as the yellow chlorine gas began to fill the trench.

The Fireflies in the trench didn't have enough time to put on their masks. It was either kill the enemy soldier in front of you, or put on your mask.

If the Firefly put on his mask he would be shot or killed by a melee weapon. If the Firefly killed the soldier in front of him, he would be exposed to the gas. Even if he would killed the soldier in front of him and then placed the mask on, he would die seconds later from exposure.

Tommy now pulled out his M14 rifle. Readied the bayonet on his rifle, placed on his mask with his boonie hat on top. Pointed rifle towards the trench and charged.

Dropping into the trench, he found many of his dead comrades laying there with no mask. They were EXPOSED.

He turned to the left of the gas filled trench and shot a soldier charging at him. The soldier now lost balance and hit the ground.

A soldier now came from behind Tommy about to whack him with the stock of his rifle.

"Ahh!" the soldier yelled as he ran at Tommy.

Tommy countered the soldier with his bayonet. Turning around and launching the bayonet into the soldier's stomach. The soldier now stopped, dropped his rifle. With his eyes wide open along with his mouth. Speechless.

Tommy pulled out the bayonet and soldier hit the ground, with his eyes still open. The trench was now secure. The Fireflies now occupied the trench.

Tommy was now in the other trench, back at Jackson. All of the Texan soldiers looked at him with amazement.

"General," one of the soldiers began, "that was the best storming, I've ever seen."

The surrounding soldiers then began to clap.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" a soldier asked.

"Well," Tommy began, "being a Firefly teaches you a bit."

"What made you join us, General?" Commander Jett said as he walked up to him in the trench.

"Well, I didn't even know I joined. My mind was clouded by a flashback."

"So you're experiencing PTSD?"

"Yeah, I guess," the General admitted.

"From what?" Jett asked.

"The last battle I fought as a Firefly Legionary." Tommy said with a depressed voice.

"Sounds like a crazy battle. Where there trenches present?"

"A hell a lot more than what you guys have here. We legionaries live for trench warfare, it's no wonder they are keeping the southern battalions at bay!"

"Care to tell us how your last battle played out?"

"Well, if it gets my mind off of it. Then I see no reason to keep it in anymore. Gather around gents." Tommy said as he sat at the edge of the training trench.

"We've been waiting months. All the planning, all the digging of the trenches. When the order came, most of us didn't believe it. I remember having this odd feeling of both excitement and fear…"


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: The following chapter will be told in first person. Also another thing, as much as I do enjoy you guys favoriting the story. I would prefer that you follow the story. This will notify you when I upload a new chapter. Keep in mind the story isn't finished yet.

TOMMY: CHAPTER 27: The Last Battle

It was about 5 years ago. I was in the friendly trench that day, leaning against the trench wall. Fireflies walked through the trenches as I stood there waiting.

"Hey Tommy!" a Firefly said shoving me in a friendly matter, "you're not dead yet, right?"

[Play _The Last of Us (You and Me)_.]

"Knock it off, Lucky." I told the Firefly in a laughing matter.

"So what do you think?" Lucky said pulling out his new rifle.

"Holy shit, you finally got it!" I said with excitement.

"Yup, I finally earned this bad boy." Lucky said cocking the rifle afterwards.

"It's the M16A3 right?" I asked.

"Yup, the automatic one."

"I can see you have the foregrip already attached." I said pointing at the rifle's underbarrel.

"Of course, this rifle may be badass, but it kicks like a bitch!" Lucky said laughing a bit.

"Maybe Johnson will all of a sudden give us the order to storm the enemy trench, then you can actually use it."

"Then it would give me a chance to shoot off some helmets of them soldiers."

From there we just talked about the normal things. We had been cracking jokes on when we'd attack the enemy trenches. It seemed that we'd never would. Months ago we came here with a bit of action. Fighting off patrolling soldiers.

We'd take them straight on that time, but the whole 10th Legion hadn't arrived yet.

Instead the higher ups ordered us to make some trenches surrounding the QZ. Boy the Military tried to stop us. In those days we'd have one shovel one hand, and a pistol in the other.

After the trenches were created, FEDRA made their own. They sent soldiers and were dung in there for a while. Every now and then FEDRA would try and take our trench. The more they attacked the more we got used to their tactics.

It's now been months since their last attack. The people of the zone must've been starving, we practically isolated them. I asked Johnson once if this was all necessary. He'd told me that it was the cost of war.

This battle would be the last for many. The last QZ out in the west, the last battle for me as well.

[If the song hasn't died out yet, then either pause or wait it out.]

Back with the original story. Lucky and I had been talking for a while. Then Johnson came up to us with the Elite Firefly Corp, or whom many knew them as, Shadow Legionaries.

A handful of the legionaries carried riot shields and a spear. The others just carried either M4s or some variant of the M16.

"The day has come, we will storm the enemy trench, and we will liberate the QZ from FEDRA. We will be backed by a handful of APCs. Unfortunately our air force isn't available." Johnson said with a bit of despair.

"No matter what, we will come out victorious!"

[Play _All Gone._ ]

Now the legionaries lined up against the trench walls. Some already having their hands on the ladder.

"Today marks for a new, the Legion will make it," a Firefly officer began. By the looks of it he was a Major. As the officer continued, I pulled out a paper and a pencil. Lucky just looked at me as I began to write. He was right next to me, so why wouldn't he.

"As we march on to new area for our Republic…"

I didn't bother listening to the Major, It was just some lame-o speech to "boost morale".

I began writing on the piece of paper.

 _Dear Joel,_

 _I am currently in Wyoming, about to liberate the last QZ in the west. If I live, we will be heading to Boston to liberate the next QZ. Maybe I can go uncover to say hi or something._

 _Another rumor has been going around, about a settlement without military, hunters, and infected. And as a surprise it's Wyoming! I heard its Jackson, remember the vacation we took there with…never mind._

 _I wanted to head there, but the service keeps me from going. I even confronted Johnson. If I haven't told you, he's my commanding officer._

 _I told him how it could be a strategic location, but he refused! Can you believe that! Maybe once this is all over, we can head over and see if the rumors were true._

 _Your brother,_

 _Tommy_

I then gave the letter to a Firefly with a red legionaire cap. He was in charge of delivering letters to love ones.

I now focused on the Major's words.

"… And remember, No Mercy for the Legion. God Bless the Legion out there and good luck."

Now the legionaries grabbed on to either the ladder or the trench edge.

"Hey Lucky," I began, "you're finally going to be able to use your rifle!"

Lucky laughed a bit, he should have laughed more. Because that was his last real laugh.

"One minute!" an officer yelled. Many of the surrounding legionaries readied their rifles.

"Whatever happens out there, Tommy, remember we are legionaries."

I just nodded my head at Lucky.

"Five seconds!" the officer yelled. Seconds later he blew the whistle.

The legionaries climbed out of the trench. Either by climbing up the ladder or pulling themselves out of the trench. The first one began to climb out via ladder. As he got to the top he was shot in the head. Falling back into the trench.

"Fucken Christ!" one of the legionaries yelled.

"We need artillery support!" another blurted.

"APCs moving up!" an officer yelled.

The APCs rolled over the trench. The legionaries were now confident. They now climbed out. The APCs prevented a handful of legionaries from dying instantly.

"Let's go, Lucky!" I said putting my hand on Luck's shoulder. Now I climbed out.

For the first 50 yards we ran, there was a very little amount of deaths for our side. As we ran another 100 yards out, the military began firing artillery.

"ARTILLERY! INCOMING!" a legionary yelled.

The shells began to hit Fireflies surrounding me.

"Ahh!" one of the legionary's yelled as he went flying upwards.

"Dahh." A Firefly moaned.

We approached the trench. I jumped into a newly formed crater. Lucky followed. We waited until the soldiers would do something tricky. The artillery had stopped for the most part.

If they shelled the place too close to the trench, it is possible for them to hit their own men.

Shelling continued on other parts of no man's land. I could even here the souls of my fellow comrades in pain, as if they were dying more than once.

[Play _Blackout._ ]

"GASS! GAS! GAS!" a legionary shouted.

I looked up and saw the yellow, pineapple smelling gas fill the trench. Many of the Fireflies in there were clearly, exposed.

"They're using gas." I stated.

"No shit!" Lucky yelled at me, "Our boys are clearly exposed out there!"

"We better put on our mask before it makes its way over here."

Lucky nodded and placed his mask on. I removed my boonie hat and placed on my mask. I soon placed the hat back on. I now pulled out my bayonet blade, placed it on rear of the rifle's barrel and snapped it into place.

"I believe it's time we join the fight."

Both of us climbed out of the crater to aid our exposing comrades.

As I jumped in there, a soldier noticed me. Before he could pick up his rifle, I shot first.

"Behind you!" Lucky said through the mask.

I reacted quick enough to launch the blade of the bayonet into the soldier. I twisted the rifle so that the wound would be enlarged. Pulling it out soon afterwards. The soldier now fell down along with a pool of blood.

Soon reinforcements arrived. We drove out all opposing soldiers. APCs now moved up and began to fire on the QZ walls.

"Move up!" an officer order. He blew the whistle afterwards.

"Enemy Artillery!" a Firefly blurted out.

Lucky and I crawled out of the trench. Seconds later, the shells it the trenches. I went flying forward. Hitting my head on something, I was knocked out cold.

[Play _All Gone (Aftermath)_.]

I looked around when I woke up. The dirt was blacken, along with red patches. I realized that it was blood. I got up as the site frightened me. I looked at my body to see if it was fine.

It was though. I looked around and saw dead Fireflies and dead soldiers. Some of them missing pieces of their body.

I realized I still had my mask on. By the looks of it, there wasn't huge amounts of gas everywhere. I removed it and hung it some where at the bottom of the vest.

I looked back at the QZ. The US flag was gone, replaced with the Firefly Republic's. The flag was just a yellow flag with the Firefly insignia in the middle.

I looked back down. The aftermath of the battle was unbearable. Destroyed vehicles from both sides. It wasn't worth it.

 _Lucky._ I told myself. My heart began to beat faster.

"Lucky!" I shouted.

"Over here." Lucky said.

Soon after I heard those words, my heart beat lower a bit. A bit.

I walked up to him to find him lying on the floor on some concrete. His rifle right next to him with the mag removed. I focused on his blood stained hands.

I started nodding in disbelief.

"Tell me that ain't yours."

"It's mine, ah." Lucky said moaning a bit.

"What happened to you?"

"Well right after I saw your ass get blow. I got distracted. The artillery shell hit. And as a result I went flying and hitting the concrete with a rod sticking out.

"Where's the rod? I asked.

"Right here." Lucky said moving his hands away from the wound. An inch rod was sticking right out. "You know maybe if they gave me the vest, instead of you. Maybe I would be fine." Lucky said laughing a bit.

"Enough with the jokes." I told him in a serious matter. "You're bleeding out. How long have you been here?"

"First of all," Lucky began, "I'm not bleeding out. The rod practically sealed the wound. Second, I've been here for a couple of hours. And third, you shouldn't be worrying about me so much. I mean my name's Lucky for god sack. Remember this helmet stopped a bullet." Lucky said tapping his helmet.

"Well, what are we going to do?" I asked.

"Look around for medical supplies, first aid. Once you find them, you're going to pull me up. Then I need to you stitch the wound back together."

"Got it." I replied.

I now made my way around the corpses. None of them had any medical supplies. I had looked around completely. I realized the only place left was, the trenches.

I jumped right back in them. I looked around. And the first thing I found was a red cross on one of the dead soldiers. The dead soldier had been leaning against the trench wall.

I got in a crouch position as I pulled the body forward. It revealed all of his medical supplies in his backpack. I unzipped the backpack to find a first aid kit.

"God, maybe he is lucky." I admitted.

I then heard something. It sounded as if someone was sliding on pebbles. I grabbed my rifle. I zipped up the backpack and placed it on my back. I now walked into another trench.

I then turned to the left. I found a live soldier. He was scared shitless. In response I pointed rifle right at him.

"Please!" he began, "don't kill me! I don't want to be a soldier for them. I'll just make my way. I'm not one of them!"

I still had my rifle's barrel pointing at his chest.

I shot the rifle.

The soldier just stared at me. He didn't know why I missed.

"I'm not one of them either." I said removing both my Firefly and 10th legionary patch. I threw them on the trench floor. "The name's Tommy." I said offering my hand to the former soldier.

"Mason," the soldier said as he grabbed my hand and lifted himself up.

"Well I hate to ruin the moment," Lucky began, "but we have bigger problems!"

Lucky was right about that. We head to see how Lucky was doing.

"You got the shit?" Lucky asked.

"Yeah," I began, "its right here." I now took out the first aid from the backpack and placed it on the ground. "We have stitches, morphine and penicillin. You ready?"

"Always." Lucky said.

"Alright Mason, in a bit we are going to lift up Lucky over here. But for now I need to administer this morphine to reduce the pain."

I began readying the needle. I pulled up Lucky's shirt. And the needle penetrated easily.

"Now." I told Mason.

Mason grabbed one arm, I grabbed the other. We now lifted Lucky.

"Ahh," he moaned as we lifted him up.

As soon as we lifted him up he fell to the side. Now blood began to flow again. Immediately I began to stitch the wounds back together.

"Hope this works." I said with nerve.

It was done, the wound was stitched back together. I grabbed the penicillin. And administered it from the opposite arm.

"How do you feel?" I asked Lucky.

[Play _The Choice._ ]

"I'm fine, now we're heading to Jackson or what?"

"I guess so."

We now left the battlefield. Both sides fought bravely but one came onto of the other.

We now walked through the woods going into Jackson. I and Mason had to be dragging Lucky. But soon, we wouldn't need to. For the time Mason talked to Lucky, it seemed that he enjoyed his company.

[Play _Home_.]

We began to walk into the woods of Jackson. It was now just me and Mason.

As we made over the hill. I began to think about Lucky.

One week ago, he didn't make it. The Fireflies had been cracking down on deserters. We had just made a fire, because it was dark and cold. We were just chilling. Talking about the days before the outbreak.

"Man, I remember the internet." Mason stated.

"One of the best ways to stay connected." I stated.

"What did you think of the internet, Lucky?"

"I just, played videogames really."

"Damn, maybe this is why you're so lucky?" I said laughing soon afterwards.

"Tommy, Lucky, and military scum." Someone behind them said.

It was clearly two Fireflies standing right behind us. We got up and we were alert. We were about to reach for our weapons, but one of the Fireflies pulled out his rifle and shot a warning shot.

"Easy there," the Firefly in charge said.

"Either you come back," the other Firefly began, "or we kill you right here."

"Tell Johnson I'm done!" I told the two. "That battle was too much for me! It was not worth the cost!"

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance," the Firefly in charge said.

"Fuck this." Lucky said as he threw himself on one.

A shot and he fell right to the ground. This gave me time to grab my rifle. I stabbed the first with the bayonet. Mason jumped the other one and brought him to the ground. Mason snapped the Firefly's neck.

The Fireflies were dealt with.

"Tommy…" Mason began.

"Oh shit, Lucky!"

We both ran to his side. I began to put pressure on the wound.

"Tommy…" Lucky began, "lucks run out."

"Don't say that," Lucky began to pass out. "Lucky. Lucky. Lucky? Lucky!" I placed my hand on Lucky's neck to check his pulse, he was dead.

As we made across the small stream, Jackson was now visible.

"Lucky would have loved to see this place." I said with sadness.

"Yeah…" Mason said.

"He was the one who told me about the rumor, now we're here."

We made our way into Jackson, and at the time there wasn't even a wall or gate yet.

I soon realized we were dehydrated, hungry, and we both showed signs of fatigue. As we began walking on the roads, I landed on my knees and passed out.

I woke up in a bed, next to me was Mason. I looked up to find a beautiful, blond, young woman.

I caught her attention, she walked up to me. She offered me her hand and said, "I'm Maria."

[If song hasn't died out yet, then either pause or wait out the song. We will now be going back to the classic third person.]

Now, back in the Jackson trench, the soldiers were amazed with the story.

Captain Pineda and his squad now entered the scene.

He walked near the trenches and asked the question.

"Yo, did I miss anything?" he asked.

"If I told you, Captain, you wouldn't believe it." Commander Jett said, "Once I get approval, you and your boys are heading to Dubois to set up a line of trenches. I'll even give you command of a whole company."

"Seems like we always get the fun jobs don't we, Captain?" Cruz said with sarcasm.

Tommy now looked at the both. Both Cruz and Captain Pineda reminded him of how he and Lucky used to be. He just hoped they didn't end up like Lucky and himself.


	28. Chapter 28

SARGENT ANDERSON: CHAPTER 28: Supply Raid

It's been about two years since the Battle of Jackson. The war still rages on. At the moment both the Republic and the Firefly Empire are stuck in a stalemate.

The Texan Army is said to launch an offensive around Christmas. This offensive is being nicknamed, Operation Santa Claus.

Lots of important things happened in the past years. The Republic and the US Remnant (FEDRA) made an alliance against the Firefly Empire. This marked the beginning of the United Republics' Alliance (basically a reformed NATO).

A couple of months into the war, certain clans of Fireflies broke away. They became against their once parent. Many gave them the name Texan Raiders, even though most never visited Texas. The Republic of Texas began to support the Raiders.

Now don't get too excited. The Raiders have very little numbers, and can't take the Fireflies in a head on battle. The Raiders were mainly used for reconnaissance. Sometimes they would successfully ambush Imperial convoys. Sometimes.

The Fireflies began to deploy chlorine gas. As it was discovered that it took too long to put on the gas mask. The prototype helmets, like the one the Major in Jackson uses; is considered too expensive to mass produce.

The Texan Army decided to remove the straps on the mask. They added magnets on both the helmet and the mask. This helped the user put on the mask much faster.

Back at Jackson, things were getting kind of rough. Supply lines are thin. There isn't enough food for the people of Jackson. Every now and then supplies would come. The Fireflies' plan to suffocate Jackson was working.

Food got so low, that Tommy ordered the execution of the imprisoned legionaries. They were said to have been using too much of the food supply. As for the lost platoon, they remain in the capital of the Firefly Empire.

Jackson Hole Airport became a FOB for Texas. About 25% of the S.O.C. candidates became SOC Troopers. In those 25% was Captain Pineda's squad.

The trench lines across Dubois were created. Anderson was promoted Sargent in the past two years. Allen became a Heavy SOC Trooper. Anderson got a Special Forces' helmet. Anderson now looks like a Delta Force member.

Anderson switched to a suppressed, foregriped M16A4. He now had a Red Cross patch on his right shoulder. Now with it being the beginning of winter, his camo uniform was white; to blend in with the snow.

Captain Pineda didn't change much. Besides the snow camo, he now has a captain insignia on his helmet. Because he was in SOC again, he had to get new attachments for his M4. His choices were an AGOG sight, foregrip, and a suppressor.

As for Cruz, he now has headphones, along with a snow camo, and a new hat. This hat had his first lieutenant's insignia on it. He got about the same as Captain Pineda's M4, put didn't like the AGOG.

Baker became a marksman. Looking like a recon but just wearing his snow camo. He now carried a DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle), a suppressed, scoped, foregriped SCAR-H SV.

Walker now looked about the same as Anderson. The only difference was that Walker had googles on his face, didn't have a red cross, and he still used his M4. However, the M4 was now suppressed, foregriped, and had a holographic sight.

Anderson was now in one of the snowy trenches back at Dubois. Anderson was next to Baker and a regular soldier at a machine gun's nest.

[Play _The Last of Us (You and Me)_.]

"The war goes on, doesn't, Sargent?" Baker had said looking back at Anderson as he was a crouch position spotting anything that may come their way.

"Yes it does." Anderson replied.

"Do you ever think it'll end, Sarg?" the soldier on the machinegun asked.

"It has to, with either a United Republic victory, or an Imperial one."

The two other soldiers just wondered what a Firefly victory would look like. Not something pretty.

"Do you see anything we can eat?" Anderson asked Baker.

"Negative," Baker said looking through the scope. "…wait, I think I see the recon squad."

"Aww, gross!" Anderson said, "Did Sargent Joel tell you about that story too?"

"Yeah, pretty crazy. They almost ate the immune!" Baker said with emotion.

The random soldier on the machinegun now responded to Baker's comment. "Maybe if they did, we wouldn't be here."

The three started laughing soon afterwards.

"Sir!" Walker came interrupting

[Pause or wait out _The Last of Us (You and Me)_.]

"What is it, Walker?" Anderson responded.

"The Captain request you and Baker's present."

"Better be important, Walker." Baker said with boredom.

"Alright, lead the way, Walker." Anderson said.

"Yes, Sir!"

Baker got up, pointed to the nearest to soldiers (who also wore snow camos) and ordered them to take their post.

From there Baker, Walker, and Anderson walked through partly snowy, filled trenches.

As they walked through they saw soldiers walking up and down in the trenches. Once they got to a certain part of the trench, it was blocked by snow. Two soldiers were there, one shoving the snow out, the other standing guard.

"I'm sorry sir, snow collapsed and now it covers this part of the trench. Going over it would leave you exposed to any possible snipers. You have to take the detour to your left." The solider standing guard finished as he pointed in the direction of the detour.

The three now took the detour.

"You'd think these trenches would be better maintained." Baker said.

"It's not so bad. I heard the ones from the First World War were worst." Walker informed.

As the three walked through the detour, they found the two tanks in their stations. The tank stations were also dug in trenches, with a ramp in front of it. This would allow it to roll out and into combat when the order comes.

"Almost there." Walker said as he found the command center.

The command center was just a building sticking out wide open. With the Lone Star Flag waving.

"I'm surprised the Fireflies haven't noticed this place with the giant ass flag waving!" Baker said laughing afterwards.

"Maybe they're so hungry they can't see anymore!" Walker said joining in.

"That's not funny," Anderson began, "People are starving back at Jackson. All for the immune…" Anderson said stopping and looking down.

"You alright, Sarg?" Baker asked.

"Yeah, now let's see what our old Captain wants."

The three entered the building. They found a couple of soldiers checking the radios. Captain Pineda's office was upstairs, being on the first floor was no use to them.

They headed up stairs to find his office. On the office door, the words _Capt. Pineda_ were printed on the door.

"Should we knock?" Baker asked.

"No need to," Walker began, "he's expecting us." Walker now opened the door and the three walked through.

"What took you so long?" Captain Pineda asked looking out a window.

[No official name is given to this song, but is the main menu's first song. If you're having trouble finding it, look up _Airy String and Bass._ If you find it, play it if you like.]

"We had to take the detour." Anderson answered.

"Oh, is it that snow in Trench A? I just got the report right before you walked in." Captain Pineda said as he was looking out the window.

"What you looking at, Captain?" Baker asked. As the three now stood being him.

The three were now behind the Captain. Through the blinds, they saw a crashed A-10 Thunderbolt. The markings on the plane were Texan.

Anderson now began to speak. "One of Baker Company's was shot down yesterday. The pilot was said to have landed near our trenches. He was sent back to the Jackson Hole FOB."

"I know." Captain Pineda said, "It just looks odd there, like the plane crashed in Jackson. Wonder if this will be here years later."

"You requested our present?" Anderson said.  
"Yes that's right." Captain Pineda said moving away from window and leaning on him desk. "You three are going to nearby town, near Jackson, to search for supplies. You're going to find as much as you can. Place it on the LZ, and then a helicopter will come to pick it up."

"So why send us?" Baker asked.

"We don't want to make our present obvious. We can send a recon squad, but there is no guarantee they'll all come back. You guys are more likely to get the job done faster and all come back."

"What are we dealing with?" Walker asked.

"The usual, I guess. Threats from possible bandits, infected, and the Empire's new snow legionaries."

"Any Texan Raiders able to assist us?" Anderson asked.

"Negative." Captain Pineda responded grabbing a picture on his desk.

Cruz now walked in.

"Sir…" Cruz began.

"Long-time, no-see, Lieutenant?" Anderson began, "I like the mustache ." Anderson ended pointing at it.

"Well, we're running low on razors, so I figured. Anyway," Cruz said paying his attention to Captain Pineda, "recon has reported back. They say they've spotted infected. They are now investigating."

"Another day in the Army of the Republic." Captain Pineda stated. "When this war ends, I better get to see my daughter." Captain Pineda looked back at the three. "What are you knuckleheads doing standing around? You got your orders! Helicopter waiting for you on the roof."

"Sir, yes, sir." Baker said as he made his way to the roof.

"Good seeing you, Captain." Anderson said as he followed Baker.

"Be safe." Captain Pineda said looking back at the picture. The picture was his family, before the outbreak.

The three were now on the roof. The helicopter's propellers were already active.

In the helicopters there was two gunners, and two pilot in the cockpit.  
"If you want this ride, Austin 2-4. You better get your ass in the helicopter!" one of the pilots yelled.

From there the three hustled and got on the helicopter's passenger seats.

The helicopter now took off. Anderson had one of his legs hanging out of copter. As they passed the trench lines he soon began to see the snow filled forest.

[Play _Returning_.]

He now saw a bear take down a deer. Anderson smiled.

"Life goes on." Anderson says out loud. "You'd think this process would have stopped for them. A pandemic didn't stop them. Hell not even a war has yet. Mother nature always finds a way."

"You alright, Sargent?" Baker asked next to him.

"Not really. What do you think life would be like if this war hadn't started?" Anderson said looking back at Baker.

"I can't say what it would look like, all I know is that we'll still be threaten by the pandemic. That wouldn't have changed. We'll still be on some front. Either fighting infected or fighting bandits."

"I guess you're right." Anderson admitted.

"Though I know what you're saying. That's how every modern war has really felt like for every soldier."

"What do you mean by 'modern'?" Anderson asked.

"Any war from the First World War, to now."

"Times have changed." Anderson admitted.

"One thing never changes, though."

"And what would that be?" Anderson asked looking back at Baker.

"War. War never changes." Baker said with a smile.

"Get your _Fallout_ shit outa here!" Anderson said shoving Baker a bit.

"I knew you'd get the reference!" Baker said laughing a bit.

The helicopter now stopped. It was now hovering above a forest covered in snow.

"Deploy!" the pilot said on the radio.

Anderson dropped the rope. He looked back at Walker who was about to slide down the rope. "GO! GO!"

Anderson was the first to slide down the rope. As he hit the ground in a couched position. He took out his rifle and looked back to see if they had landed.

Once all three were on the ground, the ropes were dropped.

"I'm Oscar-Mike!" Anderson announced.

The two behind Anderson followed him into the town.

As the began to enter the town, they found a building. The three approached the building. Now near the door.

Anderson nodded at Walker.

Walker kicked open the door. Anderson walked through moving his rifle side to side. Baker followed, and so did Walker.

Anderson stopped at the stairs.

"Walker take point." Anderson whispered.

Walker nodded and walked up the stairs.

"Clear!"

Baker followed and checked the rooms.

"Restroom. Clear!" Baker announced.

"Master Bedroom. Clear!" Walker announced.

Anderson now walked up the stairs to find his two men standing and waiting for him.

"Upstairs, clear." Anderson said in a low voice.

"Sir," Baker said saluting Anderson, "I've located a good place to provide over watch. Request to use it."

"Request granted." Anderson said.

Baker now broke off from the group.

"Walker with me." Anderson said walking down stairs.

Walker followed and they were soon outside.

"Austin 2-5, do you read me loud and clear?" Anderson said through the radio.

"Copy, Sarg." Baker said through the radio.

"Good, we're going to move up, inform us if you see anything."

"Copy." Baker said through the radio one more time.

Both Walker and Anderson began to walk in city. The snow covered building began to give way. Some of them with no roofs.

"Uhh, Austin 2-4… I think I've spotted those snow legionaries." Baker said through the radio.

"How do they look like?" Anderson said through the radio.

"White, completely white, pretty hard to spot. They have white helmets. They have white vest, uniform, knee pads, wrist pads, backpacks, and hell; even white gas mask. They also have white blouses."

"No army has had blouses in there combat uniform since the First World War." Walker commented.

"Man you really like World War I, don't you, Walker?" Baker said through the radio.

"Yes, I do. Before I joined the army, I was a World War I historian at UT."

"Enough you two," Anderson said, "Austin 2-5, do you see any of them?"

"I see a pretty good amount of them." Baker said through the radio. "I can provide support, over."

"Confirm, if you see bullets go flying; you are clear to engage." Anderson said.

"Copy. Standing by."

"Let's go, Walker." He said out loud.

Walker nodded at him, and they were soon in the town. In between an alley, they found two snow legionaries standing guard.

The two walked up to them.

Anderson nodded back at Walker.

Walker nodded back.

Both came from behind and snapped both the legionaries' necks.

"This training is paying off." Walker whispered.

Anderson was now on one knee examining the dead legionaries. He turned the first one around. His weapon still wrapped around him. He picked it up.

"Why do these legionaries have MP7s?" he said with the SMG in his hand.

"I know it doesn't make sense either, but sir we have to keep moving."

Anderson grabbed a suppressor from his backpack and screwed on the SMG.

"Let's see what this baby can do." He said putting away his original rifle and pulling the SMG back.

"This is Austin 2-5, I'm seeing multiple tangos heading to your position. My guess is that whatever you did in the alley, they didn't like."

"Go!" One of the snow legionaries yelled as he began to make his way there.

About five appeared.

Both of the soldiers pulled the trigger on the legionaries. Shooting the MP7, it proved effective for Anderson. The legionaries were caught off guard. Unable to get off the safety on their weapons. They were massacred by just two.

"Tangos down." Anderson announced.

"I see a sniper!" a legionary yelled. "Ahh!" the legionary yelled as he was shot.

"Austin 2-5, what's going on up there?!" Anderson asked.

"Taking heavy fire! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"

"Copy, were heading over there now."

As they made their way there, and RPG was shot. The RPG rocket went straight for the room Baker was in. An explosion appeared soon afterwards.

"Baker!" Anderson said through the radio.

"I'm fine, [coughs]. Shit they've breached the building!"

They found the building they were in. The sniper's nest had been under siege.

The building was soon less than 20 yards away. No legionaries outside. They must've been inside.

They opened the door to find all the legionaries going in one direction.

Anderson grabbed one from behind, grabbed his knife and threw it in the legionary's chest.

One of them turned around. Walker threw the stock of his rifle at him. The stock had hit him in the nose, causing him to fall backwards. Walker walked up to him, lifted up his stock and beat him to death with the stock.

As they moved up they began to shoot them from behind.

"Shit, retreat! We stretched ourselves too thin!" the commanding legionary said as he jumped out a window. Soon all the legionaries on the first floor were gone.

They made their way up stairs. They got to the door were Baker was.

The door was locked.

"Baker open up!" Anderson ordered.

No answer.

Anderson put his ear on the door. The door now opened. Anderson fell forward. A snow legionary stepped on his helmet, pinning him on the floor.

Pining on the ground with his boot. Another legionary appeared.

About to pull the trigger on Anderson. Walker tackled him.

The Firefly on top of Anderson looked away. This gave him a chance to push his boot, and get up.

The fighting soon broke into a fist fight.

Anderson threw the first punch, followed by another to the stomach. Anderson threw one more to knock him out.

As for Walker, he had knocked out his guy.

The two turned around to find Baker. Having his rifle dangling down in front of him.

His face and uniform blacken from the explosion.

"Hey guys." Baker said.

"Where the hell were you?" Anderson asked.

"Well right after the rocket from the RPG hit. I went flying forward. I got up and discovered a hole made by the RPG, exposing the outside winter. I jumped out of it. Once the legionaries entered the building, it allowed me to seem as if a whole platoon of soldiers were deployed."

"Well good job." Anderson said patting him on the shoulder.

"Sir," Walker began. "What do we do with these two?" Walker said looking at the two knocked out snow legionaries.

Baker and Anderson now looked at looked the two.

"We're going to find out what they meant by 'stretched ourselves thin.'" Anderson announced.


	29. Chapter 29

ELLIE: CHAPTER 29: Change

Ellie is currently 17 years old. As the war has gone by, she has found that nothing has changed. People are still being starved, those who are infected still are to be executed. Those who are at any threat are executed.

With the Encampment hogging all the food and supplies, many are wondering if they broke the truce. The original plan was to be given protection, food, and supplies. All for Ellie.

Ellie is now currently in the community center. The people of Jackson are eating their dinner ration (which was just beans and bread).

Sitting down eating her ration, next to a couple of her friends.

"Look at them." Nick began, "trying to act nice even though we are barely fed."

"I know…" Ellie admitted.

"I'm done with this. I can't stand for this!" Nick said as he stood up from his seat. He said as he grabbed his unopened ration.

"What are you doing?" Ellie asked Nick.

"I'm going to shove this ration right up in one of those soldier's faces!"

Ellie stopped him. "Don't, please Nick."

"Since when have you gotten soft, Ellie. I know that your dad, or whatever you want to call him, is in the army; but they are clearly hogging everything."

Ellie tries to stop him again, but Nick shoves her arm away.

Nick now walks up to one soldiers behind the concession stand.

Ellie saw it go down. Two years ago, Nick was nothing but a pussy. Now he all of a sudden had balls.

"Hey bucket head!" Nick said as he walked up to the soldier.

"Is something wrong, sir?" the soldier behind the concession stand said.

"Something is wrong!" Nick yelled at the soldier, "You're keeping the food locked up! Ever since you guys took over the community center it's been like that!"

"I'm not sure if I understand?" the soldier said with doubt.

"Soldier come here." Nick said to him.

People were now surrounding Nick and the soldier.

"Give us the food we work for!" someone blurted out.

"Now, there is no need to start a riot over this." The soldier said again with even more doubt. "We can vote on this in the next town meeting."

"A meeting completely ran by officers?!" a woman blurted.

Ellie now saw the soldier touch something under a desk.

Seconds later soldiers with riot shields and police batons came in storming into the building.

The people inside began throwing their rations at the soldiers.

The soldiers just kept their cool as they took the hits.

The people of Jackson began to get in their faces.

"What you going to do, you bucket head!" Nick yelled at one of the soldiers.

Ellie didn't know who started it, but seconds later a gun went off.

Both sides attacked each other. Ellie got down as bullet went flying.

The soldiers weren't allowed to fire back. All they can do is hope the riot shields would hold.

The soldiers rushed at the people and threw the batons at them.

Mass arrest took place from there.

To avoid persecution, Ellie sneaked out from the back. Running through the snow to get home. She ran into Joel along the way.

Joel now looked like an Assault, but without the helmet.

"What happened kiddo?" Joel said stopping her.

"The people, all arrested!" she said trying to catch her breath.

"Slow down there, let's get home first."

They walked right through the snow to get to the house.

Joel opened the door for Ellie, she soon followed.

Joel now closed the door behind them. Ellie was waiting for him out the couch.

"Joel," Ellie began. "What happened out there—"

"Hold on there, kiddo. I got something for you." Joel said as he began pulled out something out of his backpack.

Ellie looked at what it was. It was an old Marvel Comic book.

"Woah, where did you get this?" Ellie said examining the comic book.

"One of the SOC teams retrieved it during the supply raid. They said something about extending the mission, but they never really said why…"

Tommy now entered the house.

"General." Joel stood at attention as he saluted him.

"You don't gotta do that when we're off work." Tommy stated.

Ellie just stood there, laughing at the two.

"Joel," Tommy began, "I've gotta talk to you."

"What's up?"

"The recon squads that patrol the area surrounding Jackson went dark. No bullets fired from what I know of. The SOC team that provided the huge cache of supplies also reported in. They said something about a Winter Offensive of 2037?"

"What do you mean? Operation Santa Claus isn't supposed to start until tomorrow."

"It's not our offensive. We're still getting the details as we speak. We can discuss this at the communication uplink center."

"You don't think? The JTAE doesn't have enough troops to defend against a possible attack by the Fireflies."

"What does that mean?" Ellie said with fear.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Joel suggested.

"Alright." Ellie said going upstairs.

She found her room, opened the door and threw herself on the bed. Ellie now began going through the comic book.

"Winter Offensive of 2037." Ellie said to herself.

Its hours later. An alarm went off.

Ellie now got up. She looked out the window. She saw soldiers running in the direction of the gate.

 _Fireflies_. She told herself.

She put on a coat and ran downstairs. Opened the door. She looked in one direction and found a squad of soldiers standing their ground, suppressing the enemy.

[Play _All Gone (Aftermath)_ ]

One of the soldiers, being Joel.

She looked in the other direction. Snow legionaries opening fire and running towards their enemy.

"ELLIE! GET BACK INSIDED!" Joel yelled.

A hole now appeared in Ellie abdomen. Ellie looking down found blood spilling out.

"ELLIE!" Joel yelled. Joel ran towards her. Only to be shot in the chest, causing him to fly backwards."

"Joel…" Ellie said as she fell to her knees and passed out.


End file.
